“Don’t air out your dirty laundry in public.” Have you ever heard of this saying? If you are from the South like me, then you may have even grown up hearing this witty expression conveying the need for a bridled tongue behind a zipped lip and sealed with a demure pleasant smile. There is a certain wisdom of choosing your sharing circles wisely when you have problems in your life because we may be piling the unpleasant laundry onto someone who may not have our best interest at heart, but are we missing the blessing of helping others when we fail to let the dirty moments of life air out in the proper open spaces? I don’t know about you, but I’d rather ask a friend how to remove that age-old stain of sin rather than let it pile up all around me. That stain is going to show anyway when you walk out into the world and a wind blows that imperfect outer cover away. Think about a time when an ugly stain of sin surprised you when a life storm came through. For me personally it was recently when my 15 year-old obtained his driver’s permit and I was blessed with the opportunity to sit in the passenger’s seat for the first time with him. Do you know how quickly my outer cover fell off and showed the sin stain of impatience with an underlying tinge of fear? That smudge smacked right out of my tongue when I fussed at my young man without patiently instructing him on how to double-check your blind-spot before changing lanes. I had to apologize to my son for being so quick to snap and show off that nasty smudge on my heart. In Hebrews 10:10-12 we learn that “Our sins are washed away and we are made clean because Christ gave His own body as a gift to God. He did this once for all time.” I’m so thankful that because of Jesus we no longer have to be ashamed of our dirty laundry. Our flesh will continue to show smudges such as impatience and fear, but with Jesus we are washed cleaned once and for all, and we can renew ourselves daily by studying His Word. Romans 8:34 says, “Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.” Christ is clothed in Holiness and Light, yet He took our piles of sin-stained laundry and covered himself with those stains when He died on the cross. Those stains were permanently removed when he stood up out of that grave and today precious one He is beside His Heavenly Father interceding for you! He is actively removing stains in your life that appear daily due to our sinful flesh. Let’s face it…. If you are living then you are making a mess somewhere. Spend time in His Word and talk to a trusted friend about how they can pray for you in the daily stain prevention. Don’t be embarrassed to open up, and please help wipe someone else’s smudges off with a kind life-giving Word. Pop out that stain removal stick called the Word of God and share it with your friends. We all have dirty laundry that needs to air out.
