You Need This for Those Hard Places in Your Heart

I just had a talk with Jesus while doing the laundry. Grabbing the wet clothes out of the washer, I threw them in the dryer. Then I grabbed a Bounce Fabric Softener sheet and tossed it onto the wet heap of clothes.

Softener.

I wish I could get me one of those for my soul.

I had a friend once who sat at a formal banquet next to me. She made a funny face and started reaching inside her dress sleeve. There was one of those fabric softeners leftover from the laundry.

I want to be softened at home and still soft when I’m rubbing elbows with people.

The Lord says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26 NIV)

Cold hard traded for warm flesh.

Gary Morland has been writing about how to make family life better, and he says, “Be gentle for a second when you’re normally hard.”

There are still rough edges in me –snappy words, selfish tendencies, and looking down my nose at people –but I can feel God’s Spirit tumbling inside me, his gentle ways rubbing against my coarseness.

Gentle is something you can feel when you pull a towel out of the dryer. Is that what people experience when they interact with us during the day?

What are some of the hard places in your heart that God needs to make tender?