Quirks

Here's another one of my earlier writings. Enjoy.

Quirks

Towels. My kids fold the laundry. One of my quirks is that the towels have to be folded in a certain way. They lay in the cabinet better and they look neater when they’re folded this way. It’s not complicated. It’s not like I’m asking for them to fold a napkin swan. Simply fold long ways twice and then over. Tada!

Now, the kids aren’t wonderful at putting away the laundry they fold, but that’s a kid thing and doesn’t annoy me very much. You have to let some things go and pick your fights. Do you know that saying—is this the hill you want to die on? You know what that means, right? If the last memory that my kids had of me was me yelling, “You didn’t put the folded laundry away!” that would be so sad.

So one day while I was putting away the towels I noticed that my little towel-folding rebel had been at it again. That irked me. In order to get them to fit in the cabinet I had to turn them so that the folded edge was to the side instead of facing the front. Later I was irked again when I got ready to take a bath and I pulled out one of those wrongly folded towels and it tumbled on my face instead of coming out of the cabinet neatly (understand, the cabinet is mounted above the bathtub—high above it). WHY can’t they remember—fold twice long ways, then once over? Tada!

God has a sense of humor. I know this because of two things: First, I have a sense of humor and I am made in His image. Second, sometimes He just CRACKS ME UP!
He wants us to “pray without ceasing” and to me that means we can have a conversation with Him all day long—not only while we’re on our knees. So, here I am in the bathtub, and God decides that now is a good time to answer me. The problem wasn’t that my child was a towel folding rebel—the problem was that I was allowing Satan to use this minor (and it IS minor) inconvenience to PUSH MY BUTTON!

So I let it go.

No longer was I going to allow Satan the enjoyment of watching me to get my Irish up whenever I saw a towel folded once long ways then short ways then again long ways. What a relief! That burden was no longer mine to carry! I instantly felt better instead of bitter.

Then I got tickled. Being a visual person, my mind tends to make up a mental picture if there isn’t a visual image. I imagined Satan, lying back in an easy chair with some cute demons at his side fanning him with palm leaves and feeding him grapes. He decides he’s bored and needs entertainment, so he reaches over beside him and pushes a little button and sits back to watch the action. Nothing happens. He sits up and pushes it again. And again. PushPushPushPushPushPushPushPush Nothing happens. I have disconnected that button! Then I picture him frantically grabbing the wires and trying to reconnect it. Is it red to blue? Black to green? He’s twisting the wires together, but still the button doesn’t work. It won’t work because I let it go.

This is fun! I have POWER over Satan! What else can we let go, Lord? You know what, He’s showing me!