I’m thankful for laundry.
I never thought I’d say it–much less write it–but I’m thankful for laundry today.
As I type, my bedroom floor is covered in 2-3 foot moguls of laundry. Occasionally, as I step through it, a hidden child will dart out of the room. Most days, putting laundry away is my least favorite thing to do. The task is just so vain and never-ending. Like Gremlins, laundry always comes back. Always multiplies. Always overwhelms. Even when I think I’m done, my husband decides to clean his side of the closet and then there it sets, another full basket of dirty laundry.
Sigh.
This afternoon, though, I decided to try to think different about my laundry. A paradigm shift, if you will, of a seemingly meaningless, perpetually monotonous and mundane task. So here it is, my laundry list of laundry thankfulness:
1. I am thankful my laundry exists because I've been blessed with a house full of people who wear it.
2. I am thankful my pile of laundry exists because the people in my house are healthy and run around dribbling, spilling, goobering and slobbering all over their clothes, which is why it needs washed in the first place.
3. Separated out, each individual in my family has their own individual pile of laundry bigger than the pile of clothes other entire families have to wear between them. Thanks, God, for giving us plenty to wear, and then some.
4. 2 of my son's socks are dwarfed by my husband’s. This reminds me raising little boys and having them here in my home is a brief and special time.
5. One child prefers all white underwear. Another prefers boxers. Another prefers skivvies with animated characters on them. This makes me thankful for how uniquely God gifted and created each one of them.
6. I pair and fold my husband’s black dress socks, and I am grateful he is a strong member of the church.
7. I hang my husband’s work shirts, and I’m so grateful he works so hard for us every day.
8. I set aside a few little tees that are too small for anyone in this house anymore, and I am thankful I have enough that I can give things to others.
I folded all that laundry and thanked Heavenly Father for each person in my family . . . that they are alive and well . . . that I can put the clothes away in closets . . . that they will have another day full of life to live and wear them. I shed a tear for the families I know who have lost husbands and fathers, children and wives . . . families faced with a closet or basket full of laundry for someone they’d give anything in the world to see wear it all again.
So you see, today I am thankful for my laundry
