Blogger Friend School #8 Dirty Laundry

This week's assignment is all about laundry- both real and figurative. First I am to share our laundry habits. Then I need to share a piece of my heart that I have either recently struggled to clean up or am currently trying to get right. Last, of course, is a verse- but this one has to pertain to my struggles.

Our laundry is really a lot less then most people we know. We have a front load washer (which holds a lot of clothes) and try to only wash things that are dirty- if you only wore it for a few hours to church on Sunday morning then put it away to wear again. Our pre-puberty children don't need their sheets washed every week as well. Therefore, I manage to do two, sometimes three loads of clothes a week and one or two loads of diapers (family of eight with two in diapers).

The three girls are responsible for stripping beds and taking clothes to the basement where our laundry area is. I sort the clothes between light loads and dark loads. In the summer I line dry the clothes and in the winter I use the dryer. The freshly washed laundry gets brought up to the living room (by me), sorted (by me again) and then I take care of my husband's and my own clothes and the girls take care of everything else. (Except for Daniel's (almost 5) underwear and some rags that Daniel folds himself.) The girls are then to take all the laundry they forlded up to the rooms it belongs in and put it away where it goes. Of course that rule does not get followed by me very well, so while everything else gets put away fairly nicely, my room has clean clothes always waiting to be put away.

Now for the dirty laundry of my heart. I have been thinking a lot lately about forgiveness and what that really entails. I had always assumed that I had forgiven people for hurts they have done to me but I wonder if sometimes I have let things fade from memory but not really addressed the hurt that was caused by the offense.

If you cannot talk about something ten years after it happens without feeling a sense of bitterness towards the person who wronged you, is that forgiveness? Should you feel any sort of resentment or uneasiness around them?

Then there is the trust issue- if you have forgiven someone, how do you balance forgiveness with the lack of trust you have in them afterwards? Can you forgive without reopening yourself up for them to hurt you again? Is there room in forgiveness for letting someone work their way back to level ground with you?

I found a really good series of radio transcripts by Nancy Leigh DeMoss that deal with this very issue. I heard the one on the radio and plan to listen to the others soon.

My verse is- Colossians 3:13
13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.