A few weeks ago I was whining about not being able to make pillow covers. (Yes, I’ll admit to whining, Dear Reader. Thanks for your tolerance.) Anyway, God took that silly thing and turned it into a powerful lesson for me.

All my whining got me at home was Tom taking a look at the guts of my sewing machine, and shrugging his shoulders in puzzlement. Not coming from a family of seamstresses, the poor man is clueless about how a little fabric, a delta (did anyone else’s mom call a sewing pattern a “delta?”), a determined seamstress, and a machine can create something.

Anyway, feeling a total failure because I couldn’t mend my machine, I called Missouri Sewing Machine. They have a reputation of being the best in the Kansas City area for repairing cranky machines.

A nice person, named, Lisa, answered the phone and told me repairs were all going to the main location now. Worse yet, they were taking four to six weeks to complete repairs and return! AAARRGGGHH! Tom and I hot-footed it to the nearby store in order to make that day’s pick-up.

My brothers and sisters, you will have many kinds of trouble. But this gives you a reason to be very happy. You know that when your faith is tested, you learn to be patient in suffering. If you let that patience work in you, the end result will be good. You will be mature and complete. You will be all that God wants you to be.

James 1:2-4 ERV

Lisa was working when we arrived. Before starting a ticket, she asked if she could take a look. As she gingerly opened up the sewing machine, turned on her task light, and moved her head and fingers around inside its workings, the poor woman got an earful.

I learned to sew on Mama’s 1963 Sears Kenmore sewing machine. It was the only one I ever sewed on until its sad demise over fifty later. Working on this machine is like working against muscle memory. (I know, more whining.)

It only took a minute for Lisa to diagnose the problem: I was using Mama’s bobbin (of which I probably have at least fifty). What? It’s the kind I’ve always used.

Lisa said I could try to continue using Mama’s metal bobbins, but eventually they would destroy the casing, and eventually the newer sewing machine. She said those bobbins only work in older, machines with metal casings. Newer sewing machines, like mine, have plastic casings and must use plastic bobbins in order to sew properly. The choice was mine.

Don’t you love it when God shows up in unexpected places to deliver His message through someone you’ve never met?

When anyone is in Christ, it is a whole new world. The old things are gone; suddenly, everything is new!

2 corinthians 5:17 ERV

There are times when what we have always believed or done, what we always thought of as tried and true, changes. Times when we have to look at ourselves, perhaps others, or the world around us through a new lens.

Our son, James, is gay. For years everything in this Mama screamed against it. I had to take a big old step back and look inside. Trust me, it’s been a long and agonizing process. I had to figure out if I had to choose between my faith and my child. Once that was settled, I had to look deeper to come to grips that no matter what we call “sin,” to God all sin is the same. I had to settle once and for all that I have no right to judge anybody about anything.

In the end, I had to stop asking God to change James into the son I wanted him to be, instead asking Him to change me into the mother He wanted, and James needed, me to be. The ultimate tried and true is that God loves James and me both, just as we are, enough to give His son for mine. That’s all I need to know.

Thanks & blessings for stopping by, Dear Reader!