spiritual breathing

you may not know what Spiritual breathing is...so let me explain.

Spiritual breathing is like physical breathing in that:

1.You "exhale" by confessing your sins immediately to God and claiming His forgiveness
2.You "inhale" by asking the Holy Spirit to control and empower you and to keep you from returning to sin.

Usually we don't think about our physical breathing. But spiritual breathing is something that requires conscious action - a readiness to "exhale" or confess our sin and to "inhale" or trust God to fill us with His Holy Spirit.

Enter story:

Today I was doing some laundry at our apartment. We have 4 washers & 4 dyers. I think there has maybe been one time that all washer were full in the past 6 months of living here. So it works for us. We do enjoy going to the laundry mat together. But today I needed to wash Teddy's work clothes, towels, and randomness. I only had two loads to do. When I got down there all were open. SCORE. Because this also means I can use the washers closes to the dryers (easier to transfer). Started my loads & came up stairs. My clothes were in the washers for MAYBE an hour. I thought I needed to go change them to the dryer. I walked down stairs and found my clothes in two piles on a counter in our laundry room. Immediately I got VERY aggravated (sin). I mean SERIOUSLY? There have been times that we have 4 loads to do but only two washers available. So you know what we do...TWO loads & then another two when we remove our clothes. This person apparently couldn't wait. And really my clothes did not sit in that washer long. So in a pissed mood (sin) I moved my CLEAN clothes off a FILTHY counter to the dryer.

I thought to myself...If they move my clothes out of the dryer because they are ready to dry their clothes...I will take their clothes out & put mine back in. (revenge=sin) Urgh, they are so selfish (sin). Gross, I don't want them touching MY laundry.

sin more sin and a little bit more sin :)

I walked back down to see if my clothes were dry & they were. But this person took someones clothes out of the dryer (they had been there when I started drying) and put them on the filthy counter. And started two of their loads in the dryer. I just don't get it. How about you dry one load because ONE dryer is open? How about you wash TWO loads because two washers are free? URGH.

I came back up stairs to start folding & that when I realized how AWFUl my thoughts were. I don't even know who this person is. I even had the want to just open the dryer and shut it so it would stop drying their clothes. hellllllo sinner. AWFUL.

I immediately started this process of spiritual breathing. it helped. Why let something so little ruin my day? pointless. I confessed, received forgiveness, and moved on.

I hesitated writing this because I didn't want my feelings to surface again. But mostly what you just read happened before praying. I wanted to show you a real life instance of how you can apply spiritual breathing to your life. We sin constantly. CONSTANTLY. Mine today was in my thought life. What happens in your thought life?

Consider that question and start spiritual breathing. it's a refreshing way to connect to Christ.

-Kells