Tuesday Tinklers

I thought of another way to help me to consider the things I've learned throughout the week and help me get in the habit of blogging.  So I will try really really really hard to do a post every Tuesday of all the special, spiritual, inspirational, motivating, and thoughtful ideas tinkering around in my head.  Hence the name Tuesday Tinklers.

To start off this week I'd like to share with you one of those magical moments when you go, "Ah!"

A couple of weeks ago I was in my craft room working to complete some quilting blocks.  I made a mistake that I really had expected to make months ago.  You see I've been teaching myself to sew and quilt (I'll say it again, don't you just love YouTube!).  I was having this major problem with my thread bunching up and locking my needle in place.  Once I would move the fabric there would be this little mountain of thread beneath.  I had to work with the crank to get the needle to come up without breaking and without damaging my blocks.  I tried over and over to fix this problem.  I kept unstopping and pulling fabric and catching both threads.  Eventually, I had an idea to get a better view of what was happening under the fabric while I was sewing.  I caught the top and bottom threads, wrapped the two threads around my two fingers.  I then pressed the foot pedal and let the thread wrap around my fingers over and over, watching every single move the machine made trying to see where the thread hill problems were starting.  I wasted probably a good half of a spool of thread, if not more.  I wrapped my fingers probably hundreds of revolutions and emptied 2 bobbins (they had been used previously).  Then I played with stitch tension and length, (let's be honest here, readjusted every knob on the machine in hopes something would work [hey, I did say I was a novice].  

I was dead set that the problem had to be there because that was the only thing I could not see while I was sewing.  I was convinced it HAD to be THERE in THAT spot.  After 2 (or more) hours and near the verge of tears I gave in.  I was making one final adjustment before walking away defeated and exhausted.  I neglected to say that during this whole time my foot remained on the pedal.  Barely hovering over it during those times of stopping to pull thread and readjust something (yep, wait for it...) Well, this last time I went to get the mangled thread out, I leaned in closer for a better look.  O_O  All of a sudden out of nowhere I felt this sharp sting in the tip of my left index finger.  I simply froze, wondering, 'um, that's an odd sensation'.  The pain was intensifying rapidly.  So I looked up and 2 major life experiences came to me.  Those are what I would like to share today. 

If you didn't guess it already, I had my index finger right in the path of where the needle would come down.  When I leaned forward to have a look, my foot also leaned forward and down came the needle.  Right into the tip of my finger (see picture below).  YIKES.  All I could think was 'Charlie Brown you block head'.  This is what I always say to myself when I do something stupid (hey it happens).  Amazingly I said nothing, I just looked and then it hit me.  

1.)  Take your foot off the doggone pedal EVERY time you stop sewing to make an adjustment (of course, new machine has a stop/go button, yeah)!! 

2.)  More spiritually:  It dawned on me if I had just looked up during those painful two hours I would have noticed that the top thread had come off track.  It was not properly in the loop that moves the needle up and down.  OH MY GOODNESS!!  Is that not how it is in life?  We are so dead set on doing it our way; following the path we want to take that we never stop and look up.  How many times have we refused to give up on something or a path that the Lord never intended for us to take?  During all that difficulty if we'd just stopped once and looked up to our Heavenly Father for guidance.   I could only see where I thought the problem was but had I just looked up I would have noticed that the thread was off track.  God can see our plan and even better he knows his plan for us.  He knows what we want to do and where it will lead us and he knows the outcome.  So whose plan do you think is better?  For his plans will lead us to eternal happiness.  

Of course, there are times when you have to go through something to get where you need to be.  But again if you look up the Lord can always help you to know the difference.  I have learned to be thankful for my trials they have provided me with growth and strength (well, after the experience of course, :-).  

Remember, Look up!

Love and Shimmies, Steph!