I recently stumbled onto a letter my dad had written to me back in the fall of 1963. He had filled it with miscellaneous tidbits of information about things taking place at home. Towards the bottom of the first page I came to this:
"Ironing shirts is not easy for me. I work real hard at it. Either of my boys can do much better. But a while back I saw how behind my spouse was with the ironing, so I decided I would help by ironing my own shirts, thereby releasing her to spend a little more time at her story assignments, in which she was behind considerably.
"These are the white shirts and light-colored shirts I wear in the post office with the sleeves rolled up and the tails tucked in. When I ironed them I did it with a minimum of effort. Like said, it was for me hard work.
"Well, you should have heard the sputtering and the fuming that went on later.’Alec! What have you done to these shirts?’
"Mom was really fit to be tied. ‘What will people think of me? What if someone would come in and look at these? A whole closet full of clean shirts, with the sleeves and the tails as wrinkled as can be!’
So after that, I iron a clean shirt just before I put it on–tucking in the tail and rolling up the sleeves at once."
Apparently my dad had determined that the most efficient way to iron his shirts was to exclude those portions of each shirt that were out of sight to the public. He didn’t iron the portion tucked into his pants or that portion of each sleeve hidden, when rolled up. Problem was, Dad hadn’t counted on my Mother finding his partially ironed shirt.
In The Message paraphrase of the Bible, in Luke 18, there is an account of a woman who caused a man to change his ways. Not quite in the same context as my Dad experienced with my Mother, but……well, read this:
Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit. He said, “There was once a judge in some city who never gave God a thought and cared nothing for people. A widow in that city kept after him: ‘My rights are being violated. Protect me!’
“He never gave her the time of day. But after this went on and on he said to himself, ‘I care nothing what God thinks, even less what people think. But because this widow won’t quit badgering me, I’d better do something and see that she gets justice—otherwise I’m going to end up beaten black-and-blue by her pounding.’” (Luke 18:1-5, The Message)
My Mother apparently influenced my Dad to change his ways, quickly. It took the widow a little longer from what we see in this account from Luke. But I am reminded that all of us can go to our Heavenly Father with our concerns, needs or requests, and He listens to us. And many times we see Him answer our prayers! It may be in just the way we had hoped. It may be in ways we never would have imagined. Or it might be a gentle "No," when God knows better than we do what is best.
Prayer: Father, thank you for providing us with examples in your Word that encourage us to bring our needs and concerns to You. Thank You, for always listening to us and for answering us. Yes, thank You! In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.
Pastor Bill
Scripture quotations from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group."
