When You Know Where To Look

They say an elephant never forgets. Not being an elephant, I forget things all the time. I would blame my age or my health but I have always been forgetful AND unorganized - a deadly combination. My poor husband has not gone a day without hearing "where's my?" or "have you seen?" since he married me. 

My mom used to encourage me to be more organized and to put things away before I moved on to the next distraction. She would tell me: "It's easy to find when you know where to look." If I put things in sensible places, it would be easy to find them when I needed them. 

This past week has been a stellar memory week total memory fail. I spent at least an hour looking for this so I could work on some quilt block ideas for the Mitendi Center. Just about the time I told myself that if the girls at the center can cut fabric without a rotary cutter then I jolly well can too, I finally found them.

I also spent an hour (or two) looking for the receipts from last month's water and electric bills. Now utility receipts are one thing I never lose because it is a humongo hassle here if for some random reason the utility company decides to claim you never pay your bills and threatens to cut you off and you can't produce your receipts. But I couldn't find them anywhere. Later as I was going through a shelf I saw a folder I didn't remember the purpose of and opened it to find our utility receipts. Then I remembered selecting that folder specifically for keeping the receipts in so that they would be easy to find if I ever needed them. Aaagh! 

My family and close friends, if you are reading this, I know you are shaking your heads at me but are not at all surprised. 

Not being able to find things isn't always my fault. We went downtown on Saturday to shop for a phone for my birthday. At the first store we tried, an employee told us that the phone I wanted but wasn't willing to pay their price for could be purchased at a significant savings if we bought it at a different store. He even called ahead to make sure the phone was in stock and to guarantee the price. Then he told us where to go. 

We thought we understood his directions but we ended up in a part of the city where there were lots of police (not a good thing in Congo) and after going down several ONE WAY streets the wrong way (in our defense, they were not labeled) and having no success finding the store, we decided to just head home. As we turned a corner to get back out on the main road, lo and behold, there was our store! It's easy to find when you know where to look, which we didn't.

After we got home I wanted to finish what I had begun with my sewing, so once I concluded my search for the iron, I managed to do these. Both are a type of crazy quilt square. I am not sure yet how I will use them.

I am so glad I DO know where to look when I need peace, direction, comfort, strength, or forgiveness. I don't have to search frantically for Jesus because He is always with me and He never loses his own. I just have to call out his name.