Mentoring Moment #3 - The Testimony

Dear friends,

**Please read the previous two posts, which explain this letter. It is so worth your time to read the entire story of Mentoring Moments** You will be blessed!

Here is the next letter written back to my mentor, Lori G., in response to a day I had that so very much went with the theme of her previous letter on Organization and Parenting.

Here's the story:


Dear Lori,

I am so glad to be able to send you an email. That is, because our keyboard broke and we had to wait to get a new one. I wanted to send you a thank you for the wonderful letter you sent in response to my question of dealing with clothing.

It truly came "at the right time".

I had a humbling day on Saturday!

You see we have been trying to get the house in order, for ourselves and for some consecutive weekend visits from out of town friends and family.

We have a basement that is divided into a guest room & bonus area, and then the other half is the laundry room/storage area. In the laundry room, I had 2 tables filled with clothing and miscellaneous, that I had intentions to take care of. Things I "thought" were important to keep. Like clothing & toys that kids had grown out of, clothing that was given to me that was not put away or not sorted yet, some I was going to use for a future garage sale, or give away on Freecycle, or give to family, etc.

Well, my husband came up the stairs and calmly said, "I think the laundry room needs to be cleared out. Those things on the table need to be bagged up or gotten rid of". You'd think he had just killed my dog. I had taken such an offense. Incorrect thoughts came into my head like: "He thinks it is all junk, he doesn't want me to do a garage sale, doesn't think I can handle it, we have better things to do, doesn't he know that I am going to get to it at some point"

So I begrudgingly, went downstairs and started to work on it. My husband was right there helping me with it. Taking boxes out, emptying garbage, and putting things away. As I started to go through it. I "let go" of the Garage Sale Idea as I saw that so much of it was not that great of quality or worth as I had originally thought it to be. Even some things from the last garage sale that hadn't sold. We ended up filling my husbands truck bed with "things" to donate.

Throughout this afternoon, my husband took it upon himself to see through all the laundry that had piled up - all the way to the last load. Now, the tables are clear, on top, and underneath. The storage area is cleared out and organized.

So now, when we go to the basement to do laundry, we are not "hit" with ALL THAT HAS TO BE DONE. It is clear, clean, and laundry is more of a joy to do.

Of course these thoughts are in retrospect.

When we had finished, I checked my in-box and read your email on Parenting/Organization. I was so convicted of my bad attitude. My "fleshing out". How much value I placed on "things". That I wasn't trusting God for our future - to provide monetarily and physically. I wasn't being as good of a steward of those things that I had originally thought myself to be. That I was soooo very blessed with a kind, patient and wise husband.

Tears of foolishness trickled down my cheeks as I finished reading your email. Then just a few minutes after that my husband came home with my favorite Sonic Drive-thru drink. I did not deserve it - that is for sure. So I made sure to apologize for my behavior and thanked him for all that he had done that day for us and the special gift it was.

Lori, thank you so much for being used by God in my life.

With a grateful heart,
Lisa H.

P.S.
I don't miss one thing that we took out of the basement that day! And I am starting to go through the kids drawers and clear everything out - down to the necessities - now that the drawers are filled to the rim with clean clothes. I am embarrassed to share all that I have, but grateful that you completely understand.