Laundry Woes

Mary’s Monday Musings

My old washing machine is falling down on the job. Oh, it washes most things well but not my dark trousers. My husband’s dark trousers come through a wash cycle nice and clean, but mine emerge splotched with patches and streaks as if faded or stained. They look worse than before I washed them. When I showed up at the appliance store with a pair of the offending slacks, the man advised putting a bottle of white vinegar in the water of an empty load to cleanse any soap residue in my machine. My pants still came out splotched. My temporary solution has been to grumble and hand wash them.

This aggravation fostered some wondering on my part. What residue is there in my thinking, in my attitudes that make my soul look splotchy? What mindset stains my emotions that doesn’t get better when I try harder and seek to improve myself? If I were to expose the ring-around-the-collar truths about myself, you’d discover a number of stains and splotches. The better-than-vinegar solution to my failures at self cleaning is to throw myself onto the forgiveness of God. When I repent of my ways and ask Him to cleanse me of sin, when I tell Him I can’t seem to come clean by my own efforts and fling myself onto His mercies to help me, He will hear me and cleanse me because of the blood Jesus shed on the cross. He will answer my plea for help in His way and His timing. Whew! That’s far better and more important to the condition of my life than clean laundry.