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Iron On

by Jerry Ousley  
4/04/2007 / Devotionals

Military life demands cleanliness, tidy rooms, and well pressed uniforms. During the first year and a half Debbie took care of that for me (well, I took my own baths of course). But midway of my three year commitment she was called back to work to her job here in Indiana. This left me to live in the barracks and be responsible for these things myself and I guess I didn't really appreciate what she had done until the job was mine. I didn't have much trouble with keeping a tidy room and keeping myself clean but when it came to those well pressed clothes it was a completely different story.

As a good soldier I wanted to be "all that I could be" so I determined to learn how to use that "hot plate with a handle" and keep my uniforms looking top notch. I had good intentions. I went down to the PX and bought a brand new iron. Back in my room I carefully placed it on the shelf in my closet leaving it in the box so it wouldn't get damaged (I should have taken that as a sign).

The next Saturday when it was time to do the laundry, I made up my mind that I was going to use that new iron and have freshly pressed uniforms. Man, would the sergeant be impressed with me! But when I took my clothes from the dryer I found that if I smoothed them with my hand as I put them on hangers they didn't look all that bad. No use in doing work that wasn't really necessary, right? I'd use the iron next time.

After doing this a few more weeks I completely forgot about the iron on my shelf until my tour was up and it was time to go home. I returned with a brand new iron that had never been used and was still in the box. Hey, it wasn't a total waste! We had a spare if the one Debbie used ever went bad or we could use it as a wedding gift, right?

Ironing my own clothes was a good intention that never happened. A lot of us have good intentions when it comes to serving the Lord but somehow they never get completed. I remember a movie from the seventies starring Burt Reynolds. I can't remember the name of it now but one of the scenes really illustrated how sometimes our good intentions can go "South." He had been trying to commit suicide but every time he tried he failed (this wasn't the good intention). In this particular scene he swam out into the ocean to drown himself but then he changed his mind. He began to pray that God would help him to get back to shore and he promised God that he'd give Him 50% of his income. As he got closer to shore the percentage went down to 25% and kept dropping until now on the shore he told God that if 1% wasn't good enough then he'd just keep his money and not give anything!

He had good intentions but never fulfilled them. Don't we do the same thing? We intend to give to the Lord in one way or another, perhaps in dollars, or maybe in donating our time for a worthy project. Maybe we've had a great idea to win souls into the kingdom of God but for some reason we never had enough ambition to see it put into motion.

Perhaps we've envisioned a great program but we don't think we are qualified so we promptly explain our idea to our pastor or teacher in hopes that they will get the ball rolling. Then we feel hurt or disappointed because they just didn't see our vision the same and nothing ever came of it. We need to realize that when God puts something in our minds He's more than likely wanting us to give that ball the first push.

God wants to use us all because we are all ministers of the Gospel in one way or another. Don't let any more great ideas get put on the shelf because we don't feel qualified or we feel unworthy or some other pious excuse. If God gives us the plan then we are to carry it out.

Iron on!

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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