|

Loving Laundry
by Karen Leet
There’s nothing like rolling out of bed on a chill winter morning and
sliding
inside clean, fresh clothes out of the dryer, still warm and toasty.
There’s
nothing as satisfying as pulling open a drawer to find it fully loaded
with clean
clothes.
I love doing laundry. Really, it’s true. As an orderly person, I love
the sorting
of dirty clothes, pre- treating stains and turning pockets inside out
(just to be
sure). Basic laundry days—they lift my heart. Really.
The job is more than satisfying to my sense of order. Doing laundry is
full of
potential joy. Yes, joy.
I hold up garments and my mind is flooded with memories—memories of
watching the wearer running, jumping and playing. Those dirty clothes
remind
me of the experiences we all share as a family, the fun times, the hard
times and
the special close times. And how the memories crowd in on me when I wash
clothes that have been through two or three children! Hand-me-downs hold
extra-rich hoards of memories.
When I sort laundry, I think of what those clothes tell me. I see my
children’s
changing interests as I realize I’m sorting hockey jerseys instead of
basketball
shirts or khakis instead of torn jeans. I see my children growing and
changing
as their clothing changes—sizes, colors and styles. And even when they
wear
hand-me-downs, how each child reveals his or her differences through
their
clothes. A shirt that never had a single stain with one child might be
happily
smeared with jam by another. Laundry reflects who my family is, what they
do
and how they do it.
Then there’s the sensory input. No scent in the world can compare to
sweaty
gym socks layered on well-worn hockey clothes. Take a deep sniff of that
combination and doing laundry will take on a new urgency. There’s nothing
better than turning smelly sports gear into sweet-smelling, wearable
garments. I
love that scent, holding its warmth between my hands, feeling the
softness of
newly washed laundry.
This is a way to serve my Lord while serving my family; this is a way to
pour
out love for those people God has entrusted to my care. It’s a way to
demonstrate deep caring on a basic level. It’s not just the actual task
of doing
laundry that demonstrates love; it’s also that I can pray and lift each
person up
before God, recalling their needs and desires, their hopes and dreams,
their
difficulties and struggles.
I could get irritated as I scrub the same old stains from the same old
shirts; I
could let my heart resent the daily grind. Instead, I use this time and
this chore
to thank God for the family He’s given me. I praise Him for all that I
have: that
there are clothes to scrub and children to scrub them for. I worship God
in
those quiet moments when it’s just me and Him and stacks of dirty
clothes.
It’s a choice we can make: to use those daily chores as opportunities
for joy
or as sources for annoyance. I know which I choose. I love doing
laundry...
what a blessing!
Karen
Leet lives in Kentucky.
|