LOOKING GOOD! 1/16/11

MY BROTHER Lee and his son, Lance owned a dry cleaners
establishment for quite a few years. During the years I worked for them as a “go to” person they did very little advertising because their name and service was above reproach. However, I remember one month was called; “Good Grooming Month!” We wore red badges with white printing that said; “When you look good - you feel good!”

ONE OF THE THINGS I thought was amazing about the dry cleaning business, is that those who really wanted to look good had everything cleaned and pressed, including their blue jeans. That crease down the pant leg said a lot about the person who wore them. Of course we did laundry as well as dry cleaning. You have heard; “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”, haven’t you? Of course, that is not necessarily biblical word for word, but the premise is very true.

I HAVE a little decorative tin that sits on my little bookcase and has for many, many years. It was one of the first gifts, Jennifer gave me for Christmas. Of course she didn’t know at the time what it was and what I would use it for. Actually, it has just collected stuff over the years and once in a while I open and look to see what treasures made it’s way there. In putting Christmas away and bringing out the stuff we had put away during Christmas, I opened the tin. Low and behold, I found my “good grooming” badge.

ISN'T IT FUN when you find something that brings back floods of memories? Places, people and part of your life that seemed to have been put on the back shelf. For the most part, I enjoyed my time at the cleaners. I loved the people and maintained friendships through the years. Some have passed on and some are still around. No matter what comes and goes through your life, it leaves a mark. I look back on the scars and the blemishes, plus the beauty and thank God for where I have been because it has brought me to where I am today.

SOMETIMES we clean up on the outside and forget about how dirty we are on the inside. We forget about the kind of words we use. How obscene we can be! We forget the lies until it is time to remember what you had said and to whom you said it. Perhaps we should concentrate on cleaning up the inside and worry about the outside at a later date. We have a problem with looking at what looks good and think it must be good as well. Not so! Many times what looks good is deceiving, and it turns out to be no good at all.

“GOD LOOKS down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any that act wisely, that seek after God. They have all gone astray! They are all alike, corrupt; there is none that does good, no, not one!” Psalms 14:2-3 God’s goodness judges the world. No one in the world is good when you compare them to God. This world is under the power of sin but when we put on Christ, God looks down and see’s His son.

“I DO NOT understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” Romans 7:15 Paul is saying exactly what I feel sometimes. Haven’t you felt this way? “Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law!” Romans 7:16 Here Paul is saying that when he does what is not good, then he know’s that he has allowed sin to rule.

“SO THEN it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want, is what I do.” Romans 7:17-19 Perplexing huh?
“Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.” Romans 7:20 No wonder, Paul says later on; “Oh, wretched man that I am!” Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! My flesh may be sinful but I can “Set my mind upon the things above and not on the things of this earth!” Colossians 3:2 By Jane Ann Crenshaw 1/15/11