It's a Singer, Tension-Free Day!

Today, August 12th, 1951, the Singer Sewing Machine was patented. Issac Singer, a mechanic, cabinet maker and actor, devised a sewing machine that used a shuttle moving in a straight path to sew. His patented design was made of cast iron, with a placed spool of thread on an adjustable arm and used a friction pad to control thread tension. Singer used his abilities to exhibit and sell his machine.

I’m sure this bit of trivia doesn’t alter your day, but it did mine. It reminded me of the phone call from my sis-in-law, Karen, last week, telling me that she bought Mom (who will be 98 in October) a small Singer sewing machine (pictured here). It seems Mom was wanting to do a little sewing – taking up some pajamas that were too long and a top that was too big. Mom had no problem with threading the machine and sewing the stitches. When Mom moved from her home to live with Karen and George, she gave her Singer-in-a-cabinet to her granddaughter. Who knew that she’d want to sew again? I love it so much that Mom is still so clear-minded and just won’t quit.

I have a portable Singer machine that I keep handy for quick sewing projects. When I started making face masks recently, I noticed the “tension” was off – the top stitch was way too loose. I mentioned above that Issac Singer added the friction pad to control thread tension. I simply rethreaded it and the tension was perfect. I started thinking about the friction and tension that we have been dealing with – not just over the coronavirus, but for years now, with politics and disagreements. Our country needs something to control all the friction and tension.

Another word for friction and tension is stress. People are really stressed out and for good reasons if we simply focused on the doom, gloom and despair. But I found a stress reliever in my friction pad that I land on daily. You see, God, our great innovator, knew that we would encounter plenty of reasons to “lose it” – to get our "threads" all tangled up, bunched up and even slow down the progress. What does He do to help us “control the tension”? As Christians, how should we handle stress, because we all know that anything that distracts us from our relationship with God are the things that derail our relationship with Him. Here are some of His built-in ways that I've come to rely on for tension-free living:

✝️ Worship: Focusing on THE ONE Who helps us control our “thread” tension. Worshipping He Who is always worthy of all our praise, brings peace and calm and balances us out.

🙏 Pray: Praying through stress keeps us focusing on the Lord. It re-routes our primary attention from earthly issues to our Heavenly Father's promises.

🙋‍♀️ Ask for help: That’s what friends are for – it may be time to ask for help from our family or friends. Even a simple prayer request over a text message keeps us plugged in to people who care about us.

👥 Seek Community: The Body of Christ is meant to strengthen each other when we’re weak, help us in times of need, support us during difficulties, and celebrates God’s faithfulness with us.

📜 Read & Memorize Scripture: This is my life-saver! God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and pathway and the provider of every answer we need to life's stressors. Meditating on the truth of Scripture surely brings light and life to us.

The more we practice the presence of Jesus through intentional thoughts on Him and His peace, helps us to recalibrate for tension-free living -- remembering all the while that we serve a mighty, all-powerful God Who reigns over all our lives and promises to work all things for the good of those who love Him.

Letting God Set Our Pace

My pace has drastically changed from the busy housewife, mother, women’s ministry leader, piano teacher, church organist, and office administrator when my children were very young. I often look back at those days and wonder “How did I manage to keep my head on straight? How did I maintain a calm, cool and collected image? How did I not cave in the middle of the busyness?” If my kids are reading this, would you please remind me if I was ever cray-cray or better yet, please don’t remember! I prefer to think that I was just like June Cleaver in the “Leave it to Beaver” TV series in the 60s or Mrs. Cunningham in the 70s “Happy Days” TV series -- adoring, sweet and serene.

A young mom of four texted me: “My mom brain is taxed to the limit these days trying to remember everything I’m supposed to do. I regularly feel like I’m forgetting something or someone!” Oh, how I relate! My responsibilities have changed but I still often feel like I’m forgetting something or someone! LOL! I really do get you precious wives and moms who are juggling a dozen plates at the same time. Been there and done that AND now I am proof that you will survive!

Life requires a truckload of patience and perseverance, and we make it! We conquer! For example, here we are over halfway through February and Christmas is a distant memory. All that stress and busyness is behind us AND we're on to successfully making through another year. The problem is we aren’t satisfied with taking baby steps to get to our destination. We expect that we must do life in giant leaps or we’re falling short. There are so many lessons to learn and so many victories that we can win if we only take one step at a time and one day at a time to accomplish our goals.

In many car races, they typically begin with a pace car that runs the other cars around the track before the race officially starts and then once that flag to start is waved, the pace car veers off and the others pass on by and commence the race. God is the driver of our pace car. Instead of concerning ourselves with the next BIG event and all the challenges we’ll face, the better plan is to get in sync with God’s perfect pace that will keep us in a state of peace and contentment. Listen to God's pace: "He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." Isaiah 40:28-31

This post started out speaking to you young wives and moms, but even those of us without those many responsibilities, can still feel out-of-sync and we get in a tizzy about this or that. I know it well. A couple of nights ago I woke in a sort of panic mode when I thought about a project I’m responsible for and it just wasn’t coming together as I had expected. I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned. Then, I forced my mind to stop thinking about all that “stuff” and to think on my Pace-Setter, He Who leads with perfect timing with a peace and joy pace, realizing that tomorrow is another day, and that day will give the opportunity for walking and running in His pace.