Repetition

One of my daily irritations is a messy laundry room. We have so much laundry every day. We also have a lot (a whole lot!) of kitchen towels to wash every day. The laundry room is right off the kitchen and we had gotten in the habbit of just throwing dirty towels in there on the floor. Yes, there are baskets in there but they never seemed to make it that far. The laundry room is also the room you come into when you enter the house through the garage so you are greeted with the mess first thing.

I have a tendancy to think that if I say something once to my children that they should remember it forever and always do it. Just imagine my frustration about this! How many times have we talked about the laundry room? I tried different things . I would lecture, I would give that jurisdiction to a different child to be in charge of, I would clean it myself, .....the list goes on.

I was reading in my Bible in Philippians.
Paul said "It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. " I guess Paul understood what I don't! Repetition is good. It is a safeguard to help us live carefully and to obey. He did not expect to say something once and everybody to remember it forever. I had never read it like that before. Also I got to thinking of all the other times in the Bible when God reiterates things to his people...it's a lot!! And how many times has it taken me to learn a simple lesson? Or a Scripture I'm trying to memorize? It's not usually once. It takes lots of repetition. If it takes me that much time, why would I expect anything different from them?

I came away from that reading determined to be more patient with my children and to remember that repetition is a safeguard. As I was helping the kids do dishes that night, I went to throw a towel in the laundry room. Guess what? It was clean!!