Beautiful Both Inside and Outside by Reva Lachica Moore
Yesterday my sister Ruth called to let me know that she had received the dress that I had mailed to her. ” The dress fit me perfectly,” she said, “but there were so many loose threads inside. I had to cut them out after I tried it on!” She seemed slightly annoyed by the threads.
Loose threads inside (or outside) dresses are my sister’s pet peeves. As far back as I can remember, each time she bought a new dress, she would turn the dress inside out and meticulously cut out every loose thread she could find. Only then would she feel good about the dress.
You are probably saying, “Who cares if there are hundreds of loose threads inside an outfit? Nobody can see them anyway.” But my sister has a point in cutting out the loose threads. She wants even the inside of her clothes look pretty and neat. I agree with her.
Two years ago, I went shopping inside a huge clothing depot in Guatemala. Under one roof were dozens of small open shops that carried embroidery clothing materials; there were thousands to choose from. After over an hour of going from shop to shop, I decided on a 3 ft. maroon runner filled with embroidered flowers. When I got home, I did not find any use for the runner so it got tucked away in a drawer.
A year later while I was redoing our bedroom, I remembered the runner. I thought of using it as a bed runner to accentuate the foot of the bed and highlight my over-all theme layout. I bought several feet of maroon fabric to add to the sides of the runner.
As I started on my sewing, I happened to flip the back side of the runner. I was horrified at what I saw! Behind the beauty was ugliness galore! The underside was covered with hundreds of loose threads. The day I bought the runner, the vendors conscientiously showed me embroidery pieces one after another but I only saw the beautiful sides and none of the unsightly undersides.
I could just cover the ugliness with the maroon fabric since nobody will ever see it, I thought. However, I couldn’t do it. So for two hours, I painstakingly cut out every piece of thread from the underside. Before long, a beautiful design had started to appear on the underside. I decided not to cover it so I could see the lovely design underneath as well.
Threads threads threads! These are what keep garments together. Without threads, how can we make clothes? Threads make our clothes beautiful. But every so often, a piece of thread can also do harm. I have a friend who lost a little finger because of a piece of thread inside her glove when she was a baby. The long piece of thread wound tightly on her little finger and cut off the blood circulation. Today, besides washing new clothing for my new grandbaby, I also cut out loose threads from the insides of gloves and socks.
In life, there are many awful habits that need cutting out. Not only because they are unsightly, but because they can cause harm. Harm to others and harm to oneself. What is a bad habit? First, a habit is any action that we have performed so many times that it has become a spontaneous action. We call the action a bad habit because it is undesirable. Many spend a great deal of time and effort to break these bad habits but without success – even asking help from professionals and putting outlined steps into actions with great resolve. However, most often, many end up taking the easy road and abandoning their aspiration for yet another time.
However, there is only ONE to whom we can go to to achieve success in cutting out bad habits. God. He is a God of action. He is able to do anything far beyond our every human imagination and thought. Ephesians 3: 20 says “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.”
We can go to God and ask for help, for who knows us better than Him? He created us and knows our imperfections and weaknesses. There is nothing too big or too difficult for Him. The Master Designer can cut out our bad habits and exchange them with good ones if we earnestly ask Him.