Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Ramblings on being content with laundry and no laptop

When I was growing up we had an unusual thing for 1984...a home office. Inside this converted bedroom was a copy machine, electric typewriter, Apple 2 computer and my mom's large sheets of plans strung out around her desk.  Sometimes for a school report my friends would come over to use the copy machine and we'd all marvel at how futuristic it was.  They'd be so grateful they didn't have to use carbon paper or go to the copy store for copies.  It really took time and energy to type a paper, proof read it, copy it and assembled it into a report in 1984.

Fast forward to now and even our kids have a home office in their rooms.  My oldest completed a report on his own outdated computer and finished with his printer.  Although he doesn't have Internet (I hear about that daily) he has our old iMac, a printer and capabilities I never had as a child.

With all those conveniences you'd think he'd be grateful...but he's not.  
"I don't have a laptop?  My machine doesn't have the Internet."   He'll say with an incessant whine.  

I was about to tell him how ungrateful he was when I realized I have the same attitude with my washing machine.  My dryer is new so now I FEEL I need a new washer to match my dryer.  I was trying to explain this to my husband just last night.  If I had a new washing machine...I'd DO laundry better.

Mind you...we all really don't DO laundry.  We take clothes...put them in machine...add soap, close the lid...and then we take clothes out and put them into a dryer.  My grandmother actually washed her clothes.  She boiled water and put them in a basin.  She scrubbed the stains, rinsed them, and hung them to dry in the warm Louisiana sunshine.  This took time and energy. What I do takes time...but it doesn't take real energy and so I've become ungrateful for a convenience that I have.  Look around your house and look at all the blessings you have and thank God for each one of them.

Hebrews 13:5  Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have.  For He Himself has said. "I will never leave you nor forsake you.".

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