{labor of love}

a labor of love.

what does that mean?

what does that mean to {you}?

let's break down the words here.

at first i was going to define only labor and love and leave {of} out of it.

but then, i realized the {of} is pretty much the most important part.

la-bor: n

physical or mental work, especially of a hard or fatiguing kind; toil

of: preposition

used to indicate cause, motive, occasion,  or reason

love: n

a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person

physical or mental work that is fatiguing  {because} you wish to create feelings of profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.

you don't labor for nothing.  it is hard.  it is costly.

and love, those feelings of profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person ---does not always come easy.

let's put this to illustration.

when creating a quilt, you must carefully select the pieces that will form the whole.

you look for the texture of the material.

what pieces match, which clash?

the design of the quilt.

similar to relationships.  you choose who you want to relate with, and you decided which things are going to mesh well together.

a spouse.

a spiritual path.

a town.

children.

etc.

with a lot of sewing projects, the one's i specifically take the quickest to, are projects that glean pretty instant gratification.  meaning, i want a project that takes maybe an afternoon to complete.  i don't usually want to spend {hours} and {days} working on something.

with quilting, it's a whole different mindset.

quilting takes time.  you have to go slowly.

you have to pin and pin and pin to ensure things are lined up properly and you don't get wrinkles.

once things seem in order, you begin the actual stitching.

again, like relationships.  things have to be lined up.

relationships take time.  you don't want to do a sloppy job of piecing a relationship together, you don't want to skip seemingly tedious steps.

if you do, you will end up with some pretty serious wrinkles.

this will make the entire {stitching} process, the beginning of binding your relationship together so so hard.

stitching a quilt takes {time} and patience.

this is a big piece of material, with zig zags that have sharp corners.

you cannot just whip this out.

you sew for a few seconds.

stop. plant your needle. turn your fabric and realign with your stitching guide.

sew for a few seconds.

stop. plant your needle. turn your fabric and realign with your stitching guide.

sew for a few seconds.    

stop. plant your needle. turn your fabric and realign with your stitching guide.

sew for a few seconds.    

stop. plant your needle. turn your fabric and realign with your stitching guide.

sew for a few seconds.    

stop. plant your needle. turn your fabric and realign with your stitching guide.

sew for a few seconds.

{that's not a blog error, i purposefully repeated those lines again and again!}

in a relationship, it's easy to think we can just go easy straight lines.

but we can't.

we go along with life for a little while.

 stop. plant ourselves.  turn and realign with the vision for our relationship.

we go along with life for a little while.

 stop. plant ourselves.  turn and realign with the vision for our relationship.

we go along with life for a little while.

 stop. plant ourselves.  turn and realign with the vision for our relationship.

we go along with life for a little while.

 stop. plant ourselves.  turn and realign with the vision for our relationship.

we go along with life for a little while.

 stop. plant ourselves.  turn and realign with the vision for our relationship.

we go along with life for a little while.

 stop. plant ourselves.  turn and realign with the vision for our relationship.

finally.  {finally}. FINALLY!

we finish the quilting.

it seems as if we are {so} close to being done.  so close to having the whole picture complete.

in relationships, after a few years, it seems like we have gotten a hang of things.

we are good to go.

we are quilted together.

it seems like the {tough} and {tedious}  part of the relationship is over.

but no.

no no no.

to get the full effect of this quilt, you have to cut it up.

it seems so wrong.

i worked so hard on quilting the pieces together.

and now, to just cut it up? 

it's hard to wrap the brain around this.

and the cutting.  this takes so much time too.

there is a specific tool that you can use when making this kind of quilt.  it's called a {chenille cutter}.

this is the easy way to create this effect.

but with the chevron pattern, it is impossible to use. 

you have to make each cut.  purposefully with very very very sharp shears.

when it seems like our relationship is well quilted together, we can think that we are pretty much done.

then, something comes along and starts tearing us to shreds.

our relationship!  it was so prettily pieced together, it looked good on all angles, to all appearances!

it's hard to understand that in order to see the full effect of {mercy} we have to be cut up.

and we hope that it's done quickly and easily with the tool specifically designed for the task.

but sometimes, it's not.

sometimes it takes cut after cut after cut to fully shred us.

and it's torture.

it hurts.

it feels never ending.

and then.

then, the cutting stops.

is it ruined?

it's been hard having the patience to cut the quilted pieces.

being careful not to fully poke through.

it's taken time, and effort.

but then, we see the bigger picture.

we remember,oh yeah,  there is a greater design in mind!

the cutting of our relationships can take an immeasurable amount of time.

it takes patience.

you have to be careful to not poke through the whole thing.

when the cutting of the relationship is finished, you sit back and take a look.

you evaluate.

is it ruined?

was it worth the effort?  the time?

{or}

do we recognize the bigger picture?

do we trust that there is a beautiful design in mind?

after the cutting of the quilt, you have to put on the binding.

the piece that holds the entire thing together.

for the binding on this quilt, i didn't have quite enough of one solid color.

so i had to piece 3 different colors together.

i had to measure and piece. measure and piece.

what will finally hold this all together?

i want it to be neatly done.

again, it takes {patience}.

i have to iron out the creases in the binding, it's hot and if i am not careful i can burn my fingers.

the binding of our relationships.

the thing that is going to make it whole.  one piece.

sometimes we have to pull from all the resources we have to create a binding that is big enough to hold it all together.

our family.

our friends.

our church.

our savior.

it's colorful, that's for sure!

the pieces have to be ironed out, because even with all the work we've already put into the relationship, creases can still ruin it.

we always have to be watching for and taking care of the creases.

the sin.

the selfishness.

the things that hold love back.

and boy oh boy, that iron is hot every time we put it on.

how we hold the iron, where we place our fingers can determine if the ironing will benefit or burn.

it's our choice how to work the iron.

with care or recklessness.

care will prove to be the safest way.

back to the quilt.

the binding is finally on.

and even though it seems like we might be done, we are still not finished.

you have to wash the quilt.

     

you have to wash the relationship.

with the {WORD}.

we have to repeatedly wash our minds with the truth of the Word of God.

you have to wash the quilt on heavy duty.

to achieve the beautiful and soft ripples of the chenille, you cannot wash this quilt on delicate.

and you cannot wash it only once.

you have to wash it repeatedly.

we have to repeatedly wash our minds with the truth of the Word of God.

there is no way to complete the quilting of our relationship without repeated washing.

not just an easy, delicate washing, not an express wash, not a normal or casual wash.

 it needs to be heavy duty.

we need to soak ourselves in the Bible.

we have to get roughed up by the Bible.

by the people speaking and exhorting truth into our lives.

and then, the quilt comes out of the dryer.

fluffy and warm.

sometimes there are little threads still clinging to the quilt.

you have to give it a good shake.

sometimes,

after our relationships have been washed, there is still clinging sin.

clinging wounds.

we have to give ourselves, our hearts a good shake.

then, lay the quilt out.

admire it!

this quilt was greatly labored over!

it took time.

patience.

careful planning.

it took cutting it up and binding it back together.

it took washing.

and washing.

and washing.

and washing.

it had to be dried and shaken out.

the creator of the quilt is {pleased}.

it turned out just as i had hoped!

 when we can finally  lay out our relationship we want to admire it!

this relationship was greatly labored over!

it took time.

patience.

careful planning.

it took cutting it up and binding it back together.

it took washing.

and washing.

and washing.

and washing.

it had to be dried and shaken out.

the creator of the quilt is {pleased}.

sometimes, we can be fooled into thinking that {we} are the masters of our relationship.

fooled into thinking that we labored for this love.

and we took part in it.

but the creator, the master of our relationship is the {LORD}.

we had to be the materials, sewn and manipulated and shaped and cut and bound together and washed and dried out and shaken of our sin.

but it's worth it.

it's worth the time. the pain.

praise be to {God} that He can see the vision.  He planned and purposed our lives.  

God knit us together and hemmed us in.

All Glory be to God.