For the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being snared. —Proverbs3:26 (niv)
The place I find it hardest to act like a good person of faith is at the Laundromat. I visit once a year during spring cleaning at our beach rental house. I come in staggering under enough bedspreads, mattress covers, and blankets to do eleven loads in the biggest super-duper washers they have.
I realized I had a serious problem the year I pushed my cart over to the dryer and came back and found a retired couple using my yellow bottle of detergent that I’d left on top of the washer. Of course I said something to them, and they had the audacity to act like it was theirs! Five minutes later, I discovered my bottle of detergent hidden under dirty blankets in my cart. I apologized but felt like dirty clothes inside.
After that, I started praying in advance of my Laundromat trip. And I’m always glad because my character is usually tested in some new way. One year it was a stranger who told me she wanted to get out of an abusive relationship when the man she was arguing with left to get change. I wasn’t sure if she was sincere or conning me to get a handout, but I prayed with her and got the number of a local abuse hotline to slip to her before the guy came back.
This year I was sorely tested by a woman who let her two girls chase each other around the table where I was trying to fold queen-size spreads. I learned that it’s good to remember my past mistakes when I’m in a place where my worst side usually comes out.
Dear Father, here’s the specific place and situation that always brings out the worst in me. I need Your help, so I can give it my best shot to be a good person even when I’m there. Amen.
Written by Karen Barber
Digging Deeper: Is 64:6; Rom 7:15–25; 1 Jn1:7–9
