Inspiration

Kay Weidner shared this with us at the Ladies' Ministry dinner tonight. She took the apron email that's going around the net and wrote a second part to give it Biblical meaning. She was kind enough to let me reprint it because I thought it was so inspiring.

The principle use of the apron was to protect the dress underneath, but, along with that, it served in lots of other ways.

It could be used as a potholder to remove hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children’s tears and on occasion for wiping a child’s dirty face or cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, baby chicks and sometimes half hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids. And when unexpected company came, you would be surprised at how much furniture it could dust in a matter of seconds.

And when the weather was cold, grandma could even wrap it around her arms.

Those old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over a hot stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields. Dinner meant the noon meal. We had breakfast, dinner and supper back in those days.

I’ve seen my Mother shoo flies out the back door by waving her apron. I’ve seen her wipe her floury hands on her apron after mixing up a batch of biscuits.

I’m sure that young women now a days would go crazy trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.

Reading this about the apron, I wondered if there were anything to compare to Grandma’s old apron. After thinking about it, I decided, that indeed, we could compare it to the Bible and our quiet time with the Lord.

As long as we read the Bible and spend time with the Lord, He can keep our heart clean underneath just like that old apron kept Grandma’s dress clean.

He can cool things down for us when things get too hot or help us to handle them just as Grandma would use the apron to take hot pans from the oven.

And just as Grandma used her apron to wipe a sweating brow, God will use His love to wipe our troubled brow.

Certainly, He can dry our tears and even teach us how to dry someone else’s tears. Nothing like spending time with Him to wipe away a dirty thought, just as Grandma wiped a dirty face.

Carrying eggs or baby chicks would have taken a light and caring hand just as God carries our burdens and troubles with a light and caring Hand if we let Him. He will help us follow through with those half hatched plans, too.

He’s a good place for us to hide behind when “company comes”. As a matter of fact, if we have on our “apron” we never have to worry about company coming. The old dust of the day will stay cleared away by His guidance.

Spending time with Him will warm our hearts just as that old apron was sometimes used to wrap around cold arms. We can feel his arms around us and warming us with his love.

Many needful things were carried in that apron. Kindling, wood chips, apples, vegetables, the daily needs of the time. If we spend time with the Lord, he will carry and give us those daily needs. He promised that He would. He told us to ask for it when he taught us how to pray. Give us this day our daily bread.

Just as a wave of the apron signaled “time to eat”, a good thing for hardworking men in the fields, a quiet time with the Lord can signal good things and times for us and it filters right down to our families.

And just as the apron could “shoo away” pesky flies, being read up and prayed up can shoo away undesirable things such as gossip, unkind thoughts, apathy.

As for trying to figure out how many germs there are on an old apron that was used everyday, I don’t remember ever getting sick from Mother’s old apron. Matter of fact, it may have made us resistant to certain germs. Just as staying close to the Lord will make us resistant to certain temptations.

Grandma’s old apron was able to do all these things for her because she used it EVERYDAY. The good things it helped her do, of course, filtered down to her family. That makes me think that if we use our quiet time with God EVERYDAY, it too, will filter down to our families.