How does your garden grow? (Prayer Devotional for the week of June 23, 2013)

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We’ve had a modest home garden for a few years, and I enjoy going produce shopping in my own backyard, but truth be told: if I had to grow all my own food, I’d probably starve. It takes patience (something I do not typically have in abundance) and the right environmental factors (triple-digit summers don’t help) to cultivate a plentiful garden. Is it any wonder, then, why the Bible often uses plants as an illustration for our spiritual journeys and relationships? Growth is a slow and arduous process.

Planting a garden is an investment. It takes a sacrifice of time, money and dirty work. From tilling the soil to planting seeds, following up with water and fertilizer and pulling weeds, each step is important to the end result. Likewise, our relationships require a diligent investment of time and effort. People may use the phrase, “Love at first sight,” but sometime after the second glance, the relationship is going to take hard work, if it is to grow and thrive. A relationship that is left untended can wither up like an unwatered lawn in August.

The same concept goes for our relationship with God. We can tend the relationship with healthy things like prayer, Scripture and worship time, or we can let the relationship flounder while we go off and pursue our own interests. A word of caution from 1 John 2:15-16 (ESV): “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” Worldly, sinful things are like squirrels that filch the first tomato on the vine: they can ruin the whole effort.

Whether or not we mean to prioritize, there are still only 24 hours in a day, and when we invest time and effort in things that do not build up (or worse, actively break down) our relationships with God and with each other, then we have made that investment a priority. For the benefit of every relationship we have, we would be wise to heed Peter’s advice to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18a, ESV).

Ms. Fix-It

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A couple of years ago, I upgraded to a large-capacity washer and dryer. With five kids in the house, we needed it! Laundry is one of those things that becomes out of control very quickly (like paperwork and dishes), and when I don’t keep up with it (or delegate to the older two boys … and they remember to do it) during the week (like this past week), then it makes for a weekend of practically non-stop washing.

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The bolt beneath the agitator that refused to budge. WD-40 and a ratchet wrench finally got it loose.

So, when the kids left to go swimming with Dad for a couple of hours this afternoon, I thought I would tackle the mountains of laundry: heaping baskets of sorted reds, khakis and whites, and an overflowing two baskets’ worth of blues, not to mention the towels and sheets. I started a load of blues, and a few minutes into the cycle, it stopped and beeped with an error message. I thought perhaps I had put too many jeans in, so I took out some of the soggy clothes and tried restarting the cycle, to no avail. I broke down and Googled the make and model to try to troubleshoot an answer. All signs pointed to a clogged drain pump. Joy.

When the boys got home, I was up to my elbows in washing machine parts. I had watched a couple of how-to YouTube video on drain pumps and managed to disassemble both pumps from underneath the washer. Fortunately and unfortunately, they were both clear of debris.

The unfortunate part meant that the debris was between the basket and the plastic housing, not the drain pump. I don’t know if you’ve ever looked at a washing machine basket before, but the outside is like a gigantic cheese grater — it’s not something you can just reach your arm down and pick up what has lodged itself in there. Besides, it’s a very tight fit. I tried bbq tongs and a broomstick, but they were both too big &/or not long enough.

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You could grate a LOT of cheese with that basket!

Ms. Independent Streak wanted to do it all herself — pride and stubbornness kept me from asking for help, but my ex had come inside when he dropped off the boys, and he offered to help. He ended up being quite useful, since the machine was very heavy, and I couldn’t have lifted out the basket by myself (or even with the 13yo’s help, as much as he likes to think he’s practically a grown-up). After finally torquing a cuss-worthy bolt that refused to budge, we were able to get the basket out.

Three socks, two pair of underwear, a pair of swim trunks and a now-shredded t-shirt were hiding between the cheese grater and the washer housing.

With those culprits thrown away, reassembling the machine was a little easier than taking it apart, since I knew where everything went. I was a little frustrated that I removed the drain pumps for no reason, but at least now I know how to do it.

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This is a drain pump. It isn’t terribly complicated to remove/install, but my hands are sore from pinching all those clamps.

The washer is back in tip-top shape now, woohoo!

Take-away lessons from this experience:

  1. Even high-capacity washers have limits; don’t overfill them, or else you may have to dismantle the whole d@mn thing to retrieve the mangled clothing that slips over the edge of the basket.
  2. I am going to ask Santa for outlandish pink tools, so that no one messes with my stuff & I can find a proper wrench when I need it!
  3. I need more tools, especially an electric screwdriver.
  4. Cussing at inanimate objects (out of earshot of the kids) does not loosen stubborn bolts, but it makes me feel a little better.
  5. It’s a little awkward to work together on things around the house, since we don’t both live here anymore, but I’m grateful that we get along and can work together when we need to. I think that gives a positive impression to the boys that we really are trying to be “partner parents.”
  6. Note to self: do more laundry during the week, so it doesn’t pile up on the weekends.

Dust it off (Prayer Devotional for the week of June 16, 2013)

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I once broke my toe ice-skating. Ok, so I wasn’t actually skating; I wasn’t even on ice. I was watching figure skating on TV while spinning around the living room in my socks, pretending. The ephemeral Sergei Grinkov and Ekaterina Gordeeva were performing in the winter Olympics, and they were breathtaking. I swooshed my leg around once more and slammed my pinky toe against a leg of the coffee table. Crack! Swelling. Purple. Pain.

My parents had been laughing at my antics all along, so when I crumpled in a heap on the carpet, they seemed to think it was part of the show. My dad asked with a chuckle, “Did you hurt the table?” (They gave me a little more sympathy when they realized that I was actually hurt, but there’s not a whole lot you can do for a broken pinky toe, so we just iced and taped it.)

When one of my own kids comes inside crying because he fell off a bike/skateboard/tree/fence or homemade scaffolding constructed from chairs, boxes and other random unstable things (hypothetically speaking, ahem), I find myself asking, “Are you bleeding? Are you broken? If not, then dust it off.” Of course I care if they are injured, but I also don’t want to be an over-protective parent who coos and coddles to every minor boo-boo.

At some point in life, we have to learn how to take care of our klutzy selves. As parents (or parent-figures to young people in our lives), part of our job is to prepare our kids to enter the real world equipped to handle life’s bumps and bruises. The catch, however, is also to teach them about how to deal with the injuries that can’t simply be bandaged or iced. By fessing up to our own mistakes and being transparent (as age-appropriate, of course) with our struggles, we can model a healthy example of being dependent on someone, and that person is Christ.

Psalm 147:3-5 reads, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit” (NIV). The role of the all-knowing and infallible God is already taken, so you don’t have to pretend to be perfect. It’s ok to be human. Kids can see through our facades more easily than we often think they can, anyway. We are going to make ridiculous mistakes as grown-ups and fall flat on our faces from time to time. Dust it off, lean on the One who created you, and get back up.