Sewing Lessons (Rom. 12)

If someone were to walk through my kitchen or sewing room, I might look like I am sewing, but in my mind I am piecing together a blog post. You see, it starts something like this:

A few weeks ago I went to a local Hobby Lobby to hopefully find and buy material to make a milestone mat for my new photography business. There are a few babies that will be here soon to take pics of. Hobby Lobby had what I needed, and a really nice (yet feisty) older lady helped me to understand how to put it together, giving me how she would do it, all kinds of useful tips like wash the fabric first, cut it “this” particular way, etc. I got home and promptly threw the fabric into the washer before gently drying it. A few days later, I am standing here actually looking at the directions that she alone had seen when cutting my fabric out. It goes like this:

#1: READ ALL DIRECTIONS BEFORE BEGINNING. (I start sweating a bit. Didn’t do that! Broke my cardinal rule I always told my kids to do before starting a test, a paper, or any other project.)

#2: Do NOT prewash fabrics before beginning your sewing project. (I know this rule, and although the jury is out on this one, why did I break it when I have consistently NOT been washing my fabrics first?!)

After I had already cut off the instructions and clipped out the pattern as the woman had told me, THEN I actually read the directions and find I have gone about this all wrong or at least very differently than intended; consequently, here I am with a project I no longer really want to complete because I feel that failure is inherent because of how I began.

This is why I am standing here today thinking all this and making the thing anyway, salvaging (or trying to as it is not yet complete) what should have been easy, simple even, if I had just followed the directions I had been given the company instead of listening to the veteran sewer.

This is why I am standing here thinking about the verses from Sunday school this morning, Romans 12:1-2, about not being conformed into the image of the world but being transformed by the renewing of my mind. I am standing here thinking about all the warnings in scripture about never listening to a different gospel if it is taught or preached. That blue-haired, sweet-feisty little old lady fed me her own version of the sewing “gospel according to her,” and I listened without question, without verification that she was speaking truth. Now I am salvaging instead of thriving in my project. Now I am discouraged before I have even begun what looks like a two-day project for me that I thought would literally take an hour. Now I have doubts and fears (without and within) as I try to put this together. So I stop. Put my thoughts down here. Pray a bit. Store this away for later as an object lesson to pull out and chew on when I need reminding or sometime next week when I have time to actually post it. 

Here is my take away: Christ is my life. He has given me a book. It is true. Others will sometimes tell me otherwise either in the way they live (like they don’t believe what they say they believe) or what they actually say. I know I shouldn’t listen to them. I listen for and to the voice of my Shepherd, Jesus. He calls me. I hear Him when I dwell in His shadow, when I read His word, when I truly listen to what He has already taught me, when I obey. Love requires obedience.

Now, about that sweet, helpful older lady . . . don’t get me wrong, I am thankful for the older women in my life . . . but even so, if they preach a different gospel, I need to know the truth for myself. Patterns are hard. I usually avoid them when sewing but should NEVER take the same route in my walk with the Lord.

PS. In this instance, everything turned out okay. It took quite a while, but the sewing world CAN be forgiving sometimes. I wouldn’t bank on the same results if I applied this technique to my Christian walk.

PPPS. I wrote this last week and finally got around to posting this today. :)