Laundry Days

With seven children, every day should be laundry day. Actually, it should probably be an all day, every day event. Especially when said seven children decide to change their clothes two or three times a day.

Saying that I hate doing laundry would be an understatement. I actually detest doing laundry. I'm one of those people who loves mowing the lawn because you can watch as, strip by strip, your job is accomplished. With laundry, I don't ever feel like I get to the point where I can sit down and say, "It's done!"

I've tried many different things in battling this monster. I've tried only saving seven outfits for each child and giving the rest of them away. I've tried laundry marathons where I don't do anything but laundry until the entire mountain is gone. I've tried throwing away the "sock bag" of mismatched socks and just buying new socks that all match each other (sorry, Joseph, that you've had to wear socks with purple heels!).

I've tried everything. And yet, week after week, life gets busy and soon the laundry room resembles Mount St. Helens.

Then in my Bible study yesterday, we read these verses: "And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown in to the furnace, will He not much more clothe you?" (Matthew 6:28-30)

Now those verses are illustrations as to why we should not worry or be anxious, but today they struck me in a different way.

Why am I whining about the fact that I have so many clothes to wash? Why do I look at the gigantic pile of laundry and stomp back up the steps in defeat?

How many mothers in this world would give everything they own to be able to clothe their children every day? What I see as a drudgery, mothers who struggle through extreme poverty would see as a blessing.

And that is what it is. God has blessed me with the ability to provide clothing for our family. I need to see that for what it is.

Now my laundry isn't just going to disappear. It's going to be something I simply have to do. But instead of dreading the thought of walking downstairs, I'm going to look forward to the opportunity to see an example of God's blessings bursting right in front of my eyes.

My chores won't change, but my heart will.