Dirty Linen

‘Excuse me,’ called one of our B&B guests, interrupting me. I was finishing my quiet time and asking God what I might write in my blog today! I confess I was a little irritated by the interruption.

‘I see here that you will do a wash for us.’ I smiled. I really don’t mind. She returned a few minutes later with a very small bundle of shirts and so on.

‘I can’t bear to have the dirty laundry squashed in beside the clean clothes when travelling for three weeks,’ she explained. 

In the chaos of living out of a suitcase, dirty knickers can become confused with clean ones. There can be some question of which shirt has been worn once or twice and which is still unused. The socks are usually more obvious...

Life is a journey. It’s easy to squash down the dirty laundry – angry outbursts or critical thoughts or judgmental actions – and keep it right beside the clean linen gathered from those quiet times. But it just doesn’t do. The smell, the dirt: they can taint what is clean. 

‘OK, Lord,’ I call out, hoping I’m not interrupting Him. ‘I see here you will do a wash for me.’