5. Turns out, washing your clothes in the sink with body wash is quite the process, but they still end up clean and able to be worn again.
I went to training camp all excited because I had myself neatly packed into my nice little packing cubes. Tops in one, bottoms in another and last but not least, the necessaries in another. I thought that I had myself all prepared and squared away for the week, but little did I know how unprepared I really was.
I totally packed with the mentality of good ole church camp. You know, where you wear one thing to get dirty in, but then dinner rolls around and you put on something nice and smell fresh. Epic fail. That wasn’t the case.
I definitely ran out of athletic, sure I don’t mind being sweaty in these, awesome they don’t swarm me to the point of claustrophobia clothes by Wednesday and we had to make it through Sunday. Let me tell you the disappointment that sat in when I realized how slacker of a packing job I had done; I’m usually an over-packer.
So what did I do? I whipped out the body wash, got my dirty clothes and went to washing them in the sink, wrung them out and hung them up to dry. Did they smell awkward and less like home? Why yes they did. They actually smelled like someone that might have taken a shower in the forest. I’m just guessing on that one. Either way, awkward smell or not, they still served their purpose in the end. I had plenty of clothes to make it the rest of the week.
Doing laundry in the sink and wearing those clothes again without them being “officially” cleaned was a big deal for me. It was yet another lesson in the “really though?” realm.
I have clean, running water any time I want it. I have soap anytime I want it. I have enough clothes to wear clean ones while I’m washing the dirty ones. I am blessed to have the life I have with the freedoms I have, and I’m ashamed to admit it, but it’s true, I live a life of entitlement.
My prayer is that God breaks me of that over this next year with the things He puts before me every single day. That I would recognize I truly don’t deserve anything I have, even my own life, but I do because of His grace and mercy. That I would not only know it but that I would acknowledge it and live by it.
