The Importance of Yesterday

The Importance of Yesterday

It happens every so often.  I get so caught up in who I am, and where I’m going, that I forget who I was.

If you took a good look at who I am, who I was would shock and probably horrify you.

I was a girl who looked for love, acceptance, and fulfillment in a lot of wrong places.

I battled an eating disorder for many years.

I was trapped in the lie that if I could work just a little harder, God would love me more.

I was hiding an addiction to self-injury for most of my teenage years.

This is not who I am today.  But it all played a part in getting me here.  It doesn’t define me, but it shaped me and it explains me.

We need to remember who we were yesterday.

We need to remember that everyone we meet has their own yesterday.  It’s easy for middle-class people to take one look at a homeless person and separate them from their yesterday.  It’s easy to assume that who they are today is who they’ve always been. 

It’s easy to assume that this person over here, who I’ve decided is inferior to me, is more hopeless and in need of Christ than I am.

That’s why judgment is so spiritually toxic.

When we judge, we dismiss the fact that none of us can break free from our yesterdays alone.

Love-Hate Update for Oct. 12, 2012

 
I really want to write about what's happened this week, and as you'll see, I am really tired and don't feel up for writing anything too involved.  So I decided to try this Love-Hate format I've seen on a couple different blogs.

Loves and hates for this past week:

Love:
-selling a shawl on my Etsy website 
-falling asleep with a very cuddly Esther (our new cat) on my pillow just about every night
-an amazingly calm Tuesday morning with my wonderful group of toddlers.  Love seeing those kiddos every week!

Hate:
-Dad's low white blood cell count, which prevented him from receiving chemo this week
-insanely high fatigue level from what seems to be thyroid problems after enjoying the best health I've had in years
-Mom will need to have skin cancer removed.  This makes the 4th cancer diagnosis to hit my family in about 6 months.  Not really finding the words to express how much I hate this.

I guess that's about it for today.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Our Hand-Powered Washing Machine!

One thing we've been wanting to do is wean ourselves off of using the washing machine and dryer all the time.  We were tired of using so much water just to save a little time.  Plus, those machines are energy vampires!

A few months ago, we took the plunge and bought a hand-powered washing machine, and we've been thrilled with the results!  I'd say I do about two-thirds of our laundry in the Wonder Wash.  (I still do sheets and towels in the dryer because they're too big.  I also use the machine occasionally if I'm too worn out to use the WW.)  If we have kids, I'll use the Wonder Wash for the cloth diapers.  At this point I honestly can't say how much of our laundry will go into the Wonder Washer once I'm doing laundry for a family instead of a couple, but I'll certainly use it as much as I can.

I'm sure you're all wondering, "Doesn't that take forever?"  And believe it or not, it doesn't! :)  It takes less than 5 minutes per load.  

And for an added bonus: Since we live in an apartment, every load I do in the Wonder Wash is one load we don't have to shell out a handful of quarters for! :D

If you've ever wanted to try a hand-powered washer, I say just buy one and give it a try!  You can use it as much or as little as you want while you're getting used to it.