In my previous blog, Permanent Press, I shared some of my childhood memories about the domestic tasks my Mother
taught me, in particular the skill of ironing at or around the age of 12. My mom learned to be an incredible domestic engineer
from her mother, Edna Franklin. My
maternal grandmother was a humble servant, excellent cook, caretaker and loved
her some Jesus, baby, yes she did. As a
youngster, my mother had far more preparatory steps to take before she began
the process of ironing than I did and
unfortunately there were no quick solutions or shortcuts. All of these steps required patience,
something that is slowly becoming a rare fruit of the spirit for this current
time period, including Believers. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control. There is no law against things like this. Galatians 5:22-23 (CEB). As
I mentioned yesterday, Mom’s preparation was
as follows:
Gathering the cleaned clothes that needed
to be ironed; Dissolving the ball of Argo laundry starch in water; Soaking the
items to be ironed; Wringing them dry; Line drying them; Placing them in the ‘ice
box’ for up to 24 hours; Cleaning the iron (which was made out of real iron); Heating
the iron on the gas or potbelly stove, Sprinkling the items with water and
finally ironing the clothes.
Though
my ironing preparation was not as tedious as Mom’s I too had an ironing process
that I followed as I pointed out yesterday.
I timed prepping my ironing station just as the clothes were dry in
order to iron them right away to eliminate extra wrinkles (as a kid but not as
a working adult), Ironed the least desirable items first (most of the time) and
I didn’t stop until I was done. I didn’t
have access to Argo starch, but I took full advantage of Niagra or Faultless heavy
spray starch and found that damp fabric seemed to iron better. I even had a process for ironing certain
items, for example dress shirts: I start
with the collar, move to the shoulders, sleeves and then the body of the shirt. I still follow that process.
Tania
Not Tanya moment: I have a relative that
observed me ironing one day and then asked during my task why I ironed the
entire shirt. Hmmm, let me see … because
it’s wrinkled? They proceeded to tell me
that they only iron the front part of the shirt because no one would could see
the rest of the wrinkled shirt. I said
“oh” and then I thought to myself, ‘but what happens if you need or want to take
your jacket off?’
As
I fine-tuned my ironing skills, I discovered that certain fabrics were a bit
more challenging to iron than others, for example: 100% cotton, linen, black or navy blue. I never figured out how to avoid the shiny
residue that was left behind on the black or navy blue items but thanks to
little-big Timmy who loves to iron, I learned that using a white t-shirt on top
of the dark fabric will eliminate the shiny residue. Thanks for the tip Timothy Alexander
White.
A
few weeks ago my Mom and I had a conversation about ironing. I asked her if she thought Permanent Press
clothing, wash and dryer cycles had improved the life of ironers across the
nation. In her opinion as a retired
domestic engineer she said that it varied but overall it was a nice feature,
however, if you don’t remove the items from the dryer promptly it was pointless. We continued down memory lane about her ironing
process as a youngster and as I
probed I noticed distinctly that her “sound” changed when she spoke of the preparation as indicated above. She spoke about the ironing process with full knowledge, expertise
and confidence as she recalled those years of youthful activity. Guiding the hot iron over the fabric was
almost effortless, regardless of the fabric, because of the preparation (i.e. Argo
starch and hours of cooling) which commanded the fabric to yield itself to the process which promised to produce beautifully crisp wrinkle free items. But only if you were patient, prepared and
followed the process in its entirety
would you reap the reward.
I
think that’s a great place to segway into the real discussion about what
appears to be a permanent press cycle for many of us. What do I mean? Well, let me ask you this: Can anyone other than me identify with going
through a situation that seems like it will never end? How about wondering if God has forgotten you in
the oven of preparation while you seem to bake mercilessly? What about wondering why the FB’s (faking
believers) and heathens around you keep a job, have credit scores of 1800 and
above, vacation regularly, parent perfect children, etc. while you seem to be
mocking time? Have you ever felt like
you’re spinning and spinning and spinning in the hot dryer of life and no one
will open the dryer door and let you out?
I have to confess, sometimes it feels like my “press” is permanent.
We think you ought
to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the
province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure,
and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result,
we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the
dead. And he did rescue us from mortal
danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and
he will continue to rescue us. 2
Corinthians 1:8-10 (NLT)
What
do I mean by press? The trial of my
faith. The thing I’ve been going through
now off and on since 2010. I try to keep
it together, remain positive, read the declarations that I’ve written on the mirrors
in my home, say them out loud, quote my scriptures, fast, I show up every day
for Victory, prepare my declarations, participate, show up for Purpose with a
smile, always ready to serve and do it all over again, day after day, week
after week with what appears to be no change.
But that’s a problem. You know
why? Because I’m focused on the process, not the Promise. Whining or
complaining about the length of time isn’t going to change anything or make God
speed up my process.
When
I take my eyes off the Promise, I
start to ask the “why?” questions and I begin to focus on the length of time I’ve
been on the ironing board of life with the iron set on hell, I mean high as it
appears to scorch me. Most of the time
when I’m in that state I get the silent treatment and if I allow myself to “go
there” I will slip down the slippery whining slope of despondency which is a
dangerous scary place for me that I avoid at all costs. I will do whatever is necessary to avoid that
place because if I slip, I will have to start all over again and I’ve come too
far to slip or lose my grip. Sometimes I
scream to God (NOT AT HIM) to remind him I’m still on the pressing board and He
needs to remove the iron but He doesn’t because he can see “cat faces” that I
am unaware of? It’s imperative that I
complete the process so the wrinkles can be removed because ‘cat faces” are
unacceptable in God’s house too.
As for husbands,
love your wives just like Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. 26
He did this to make her holy by washing her in a bath of water with the word.
27 He did this to present himself with a splendid church, one without any sort
of stain or wrinkle on her clothes, but rather one that is holy and blameless. Ephesians 5:27 (CEB)
It’s
in those times when I need to center myself, put my big girl panties on and
remind myself of the Promise, not the
process because it (the trial) is not
permanent. If I don’t know anything
else, permanent press is a lie. Our
loving father will never keep us in a situation where we are down all the time.
However,
I do want to warn you that just because we have God’s Promise doesn’t mean that we won’t have to fight for it and that’s
where we can get hung up many times. There
is no easy way to get to promise.
- Joseph had to fight to keep his sanity even though his battle seemed to go from bad to worse to worser and when it appeared he had been flattened by a permanent press, God blessed him with unprecedented favor. Genesis 37;
- Joshua and the Israelites fought their way to Promise multiple times but prior to the fight God prepared them and gave specific instruction. Are you listening to the instructions God gives you? If not, perhaps that’s why you feel like you’re losing. The book of Joshua
- The woman with the issue of blood pressed through the crowd on hands and knees, she didn’t care that she broke the ritualistic traditions she was raised on or how she looked to those around her. She could see the Promise and refused to let it get away because there was no guarantee she would get another chance. Mark 5
- Look at Noah. He was ridiculed by everybody for being obedient; he had to fight his way through the storm even when it appeared that the press was permanent, but he made it. Genesis 5 and Genesis 6
Listen
hon’tee, there are no short cuts or easy processes to living a wrinkle free
life like the relative I mentioned above who presses the portion of the garment
that people can see. That’s comparable
to living a double standard or a hypocritical life. We’ve got to live intentionally and we can’t
be afraid to fight for our prize. I press toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:14
I’m
out of time.
Because
of his faithfulness
Tania
Not Tanya
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