The Plumbline

One of my most comfortable pair of 'knock about the house' shorts has developed a stress tear at a very 'not so easy to fix' location. I will attempt to fix it, but a stress tear is kind of hard to fix because it follows the path knit in the shorts and it isn't parallel to the seam! So, try as I might, these may be 'beyond fixing' in the long run. Try as we might, we can attempt to bring the frayed edges of the tears in our lives known as "stress tears" together without the tear being noticed, but it is almost impossible. Things just don't match up and if we simply join at the point of 'stress', the surrounding fabric of our lives has also been weakened, so that patch is not going to last long either. “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. And no one puts new wine into old wine skins. For the old skins would burst f...

Living in Arizona doesn't require the need for much of a "winter" wardrobe. I have an all-purpose windbreaker I can wear in rain or cooler weather. I don't invest in jackets or coats because the days of needing one are so very few, the coat would just take up space in my closet. I prefer the all-purpose version of something most of the time. I buy an all-purpose cleaner when doing the bathrooms - so I don't have to have a whole caddy of cleaners to do that job. I use the same surface cleaner to do the kitchen counters that I use to clean the stove top and the appliance surfaces. Why? It works! There are just times when the "all-purpose" is not only 'good enough', it is the best! No wonder God declares love the "all-purpose garment" we are to put on each day - it truly is the BEST! So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even...