Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The Basket of Words

The Basket of Words
Carol Condon
carolcondon5@aol.com

The floor was finally void of all clothes and the room had taken on a sense of order. I emptied the trash, swept the floor and took a moment to glance with satisfaction that once again my laundry room looked like an actual room and not just a mountain of dirty clothes. However, with the six of us I am only a few hours away from the laundry baskets returning to once again round out my room with piles of laundry needing my attention.

There is not a member in my family that would dream of taking a shower, brushing their teeth, arranging their hair in the latest style and then reach into a basket of dirty, wrinkled clothes to pull out their outfit for the day. What a defeat this would be to the hygiene regime that they had just performed. Wearing dirty laundry is not even a consideration.

With the sink full of dishes needing to be washed, dried and put away, we do not head to the basket of laundry and pull out a soiled dishcloth to begin the nightly chore. Nor do we head to the laundry room to pull out a set of sheets; instead we walk to the linen closet and choose from the stack of fresh linens. Sleeping on soiled sheets and washing with a soured dishcloth are not an option.

There is another basket that we should all keep properly stored away awaiting a thorough cleaning. It will not hold our dirty laundry, but it holds our words that need some washing up before we place them back into our vocabulary.

We have our spiritual regimes that we hold to. Our schedules are blocked off with the “no exception” rule for our church services, morning devotions, daily Bible reading, monthly fast days just to name a few. Then, we get a telephone call, greet the mailman, speak to the cashier while totaling our purchases, or maybe we welcome our spouse home from their workday and without thinking we reach into the basket of words and pull out a set negative remarks that completely defeats the daily regimes we hold to. We cannot afford the luxury of speaking with unguarded, negative words just as we would not reach into the laundry basket to choose our garments for the day.

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14

1 comment:

  1. I love this!! I find myself thinking of this scripture often. Our words and the way we interact are often our greatest witnesses!! What are we really saying to the people we see during our day? (Goldie)

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