Pattern for Living

I learned how to sew in an 8th grade home economics class. We each had to make a shirt waist dress to wear for a fashion show of nothing but those dresses. Imagine. In high school, I made some of my clothes and did some minimal sewing while in college. I would always follow the pattern to the "T" so I wouldn't make a mistake. It wasn't until years later that I started to do custom sewing for money.

Custom sewing is a far cry from the shirt waist dress pattern on which I learned to sew. Many times I receive a picture that a client has found in a magazine or one that the decorator has designed for which I have to actually make a pattern. I have many "sewing for the home" books that do help but sometimes I have to step out in faith that what I am making will be what everyone wants. Praying always helps.

How many times do we try to live our lives without a pattern attempting to make one of our own trusting that things will go well? If you're like me, and I'm sure there are others, it's all too often. God gave us the pattern for our lives in His Word, the Bible. Now, we may have the pattern in front of us but decide that the directions don't need to be followed and think our way is better. That kind of thinking is what gets us in a mess. The seams of our life just aren't matching and the garment that we thought we were making is all off kilter. How easy it would have been if we had just followed the directions. Well...we can read the directions but until we proceed in making the garment, we have no idea of how valuable they are. Reading the directions in the Bible help us to prepare for our ministry in the world. We know which parts of the pattern fit together and are able to do the job we are asked to do. In the long run, the finished garment is our own salvation and reward for paying attention to the directions.