Therapeutic Ironing

What were you doing this afternoon? asked a friend as we traded IMs.

Not much. Just some therapeutic ironing, I responded.

Whoa, girl! she said, if you need therapy, just come see me ANY time! I've got loads of ironing for you to do.

Gently, I had to explain that I was not doing just ANY ironing. I had pulled out some old linens from a family inheritance and was strategizing how I could use them beyond the obvious family holiday meal. I had found a container of old tablecloths, some with a few weak spots, darns or holes, there were a couple which were perfect, (except that they needed ironing...)

I had spent a quiet afternoon working on my lastest memory work from the Sunday sermon (Phil. 2:14-15) Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe...

Soo.. what does IRONING have to do with the memory work? It's not that clear to me either. But, as I starched and folded, creased and stacked the linens, I noticed a couple of things...

• the linens fit into a MUCH smaller space when they were ironed, about half the space, actually


• once ironed and starched, the inner beauty of the woven linen really stood out; you could even say it was SHINING?

Living the way I'm supposed to (as someone who claims to love and follow Jesus) one would hope you'd see a difference... that things 'stack up' differently in my life than you see in the lives of others. I hope that's true. No doubt (!) that there's lots of room for improvement. The other thing that I am pondering is simply this - caring for myself in the way that I know is best for my body, my mind and my Spirit is not just a good thing for me, it's good for those around me. They can see where I'm going, what I'm about. Oh I suppose I will look like a wrinkled wrag from time to time... but more and hope, my goal is to reflect the beauty of the One who created me. You'll find stains and holes in my life, just like these "vintage" linens I've ironed. He is changing and making me new - inside and out...

Time to go iron and pray some more...

From our home (a little better ironed today) to yours...

Deb