Clotheslines, House Infertitlity and Contentment

Well, they say good things come to those who wait and I waited!  But yesterday I finally got my clothesline!  Seems like a small thing, but not to me!  I had been using our dryer of course before the clothesline and realized there has got to be a better way and cheaper way.  RM had it on his list, but there were many things before that on his list of priorities. 

I tried to get creative and hung things on trees!  That didn't work very well.  Everything fell off or got dirtier!  Then I got some rope from the shop and hung it between trees.  Also not very great.  I couldn't make the rope taut enough so it fell to the ground with one or two wet towels on it. 

Then one day I looked at the chicken coop fence and realized it was perfect!  Everything from an entire load or two would go on it.  It was strong enough to hold everything.  I didn't even need clothes pins as the fence had little wires on the top that the clothes attached themselves to (although that did cause a few holes here and there!).  I was quite proud of myself.  I had managed to solve my problem and it relieved my husband for the time being.  I did that for most of last summer and all of this spring and summer until yesterday.

Here is the "before" picture: (clothes thrown on by kids, so not so tidy looking!)

Here is the "after" picture:

Something just clicked in my husband's head that made him realize it wasn't that big a deal.  I was so grateful!  I share this story for a couple of reasons.  I think we, as wives, can be more resourceful than we realize.  I think we think that unless our husbands do it, it can't be done.  Truth is, I have a lot of friends that I like to call "capable women" who do take on many things, not waiting for their husbands.  Not out of disrespect for their husbands, but because they realize they can help their husbands by taking something off their already long list.  The alternative is to become wives who complain and pester their husbands.  I'm sure I mentioned the clothesline more than once to my husband, but I tried to be mindful of how it might come across to him.  I can tell when I've crossed the line (pardon the pun...)  Anyway, I'm learning to come up with solutions that take things off my husband's list until he can get to them.  It's one way I can help him.

The other reason I mention this is to remind us how we can go to God, even about things like clotheslines, instead of becoming the kind of wife we know we aren't supposed to be.  I had a long chat about this with a close friend yesterday.  She is struggling, longing for a change in her circumstance.  She has communicated this to her husband and he is doing his best to provide.  What is she to do in the meantime?  What if things don't change for her?  We decided she had to come to grips with her attitude first and foremost.  She knew this, but it was good to think about that again.  She already felt conviction about being a "drippy faucet", but sometimes we just can't help ourselves!  We talked about all the positives about staying where she is at, if she never gets out of her current situation.  We talked about the worse case scenarios if her situation never changes.  Suddenly it didn't seem so awful.  Finally we prayed, for herself, for her husband, for change, but for contentment in the meantime.

It's like me and the clothesline - I just had to be content with a silly little thing like not having a clothesline.  What was the worse case?  Hanging my clothes on the fence for the rest of my life?  No big deal.  Once I was at that place of contentment.....a clothesline suddenly appeared!  It was completely out of the blue!  He literally started hanging it up last night without me saying a word!

My friend is learning that awful lesson of contentment.  How we fight this particular wife/life lesson.
A pastor we heard talk on Sunday prayed for his congregation and for those who were baptizing their children, but then he stopped and prayed for those who might be finding the day particularly hard, especially if they were infertile.  "Lord," he prayed, "Please bless them with children, but if that is not your will, bring them to a place of contentment."  I shared that prayer with my friend who longs to live in a house, not an apartment.  We realized she had "house infertility".  We laughed, but it's true! She longs for a home, just like some long for kids.  Our prayer continued on to echo that pastor's prayer:

"Lord, give her a home, but if it isn't your will, bring her to a place of contentment."