11.16.2008

My Laundry Room



Seems to fit my theme of the Mountain O' Socks. I had fun with that post and so did my fellow bloggers, thanks for playing the game, loved all your answers.
Really, I post my laundry room, in light of the AWESOME women's conference that I attended yesterday with my friend Melissa. It was titled "Meet me in the Laundry Room" and it was great. Thanks to the ladies at Providence that worked so hard to make it all come together - Mandy from The Ash Family (on my sidebar) - great job. And a huge kudos, thanks and amazement at your gift for public speaking to Lauren at That Girl. Seriously, this girl has an real knack for taking a big topic and making it work for everyone in the room. She pulled in scripture, made it relevant to each of us, and in true 'that girl' fashion even very funny at times. I feel like I have watched Lauren grow up since she was little, the Lord chose right when he led her into ministry. She has overcome a lot and truly lives to glorify God, I am still praying for the pants snap...

The focus for the day was that God will meet you anywhere you seek him, even the Laundry Room.
Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

I took a lot of notes, and hope to go over them again as the week goes on. Many things from the day struck me, but the challenge that remained stemmed from an illustration that Lauren chose. She told the story of a monk (from a book she'd read, no reference, sorry)who was struggling to find his strength in the place where he lived. He wasn't called to preach, couldn't sing, and didn't enjoy teaching. What he did enjoy was doing dishes, he enjoyed it so much that he did this for every meal. After awhile he began to recognize which plate belong to which monk and God encouraged him to pray for those people - and he obeyed. He took his calling and made to most of it. Now, I can surely do this. As I rinse the boys' plates for the dishwasher, calling them by name and lift them up in prayer. So I resolve to do so...

One of my big challenges that I face is at work. It is often hard to know when it is acceptable to share my faith. Most of the people I care for are not complete strangers, for I have come to know and care for them. I know the name of the people I serve, I should pray for them by name. Now over a day's time, that is a lot of prayer sometimes upwards of 400 prescriptions a day. But, what could happen if I resolved to pray for these people, even if I catch a portion???

Now onto My Laundry Room. I left my house on Thursday morning full well intending to finish this mess, but the day had better things in store. Since I worked Friday, I went to the women's conference knowing that my laundry room looked like this. I learned this from my mom, she said make sure your laundry room has a door on it so that you can shut it! I am so glad I left that silly laundry, it will be there until Tuesday now because I had fun with my family Saturday afternoon, don't work much on the Lord's day, and I work again tomorrow. I returned from the conference and the laundry room beckoned me. As I looked straight ahead I realized that while God has closed (infertility) doors for us, he has also opened(adoption) others. The big mountain of clothes or problems can be a neatly folded pile if we meet the Lord in the middle of that counter. And as for the dirty laundry still laying on the floor, well let's just say I am a work in progress! So with the Lord's help I will tackle my laundry room...Tuesday! Let me know if you went to the conference and enjoyed yourself, or if you didn't and you read this whole post, you deserve some kudos too, leave me a note!