"If You Must Die, Iron!"

Yesterday was difficult and complicated at first.
But I remembered the advice given by her mother to Margaret Jensen, author of First We Have Coffee.

When nurse Margaret came home one day so depressed and discouraged that she told her mother, "I could just die!"

her Norwegian mother pulled a basket of ironing out from under the table and said calmly,

"If you must die, iron!"

Margaret ironed.
And she learned something she would carry with her throughout life.

Rather than die, we iron.

Perspective returns.

Our mind calms.

Our heart is mended.

Problems are ironed out.

Huddling by my window praying yesterday morning, I was sinking fast instead of being lifted.
 It seemed it might be better to leave my room and my prayer time and go back to work.

There was genuine blessing in simply going out to the van and cleaning it out,

bringing in the laundry off the lines,

and looking up a recipe for blueberry pies.

It just seemed that the pressure of what was weighing on me simply lifted.

My heart really was in the right place after all--

the place of being a servant as a housewife and mother and country cook.

The joy came, not in the praying of long prayers,
but in the doing of common and ordinary tasks of the day,
with a special task added in--

the choice to make my favorite pie!
I'll admit it was for me.
I had skipped lunch because I wasn't hungry and my imperfect, very non-angelic youngsters were arguing around the table and I just didn't feel like lunch.
I ate mine later while making pies!

 Somehow, the choice to make myself a blueberry pie and keep busy at my ordinary tasks

helped me in ways that trying to die to myself about certain issues during prayer time simply could not accomplish.

The joy was back again, and I even ended up going on a date with my husband!

If you are depressed and feel that you would like to die,

iron!

Otherwise, make pies!