Better way.

     I bought a rug today at a hardware store that I was unaware sold really nice rugs.  The gentleman in the front pointed me the way with a, "Can't miss em."  So, off I went with my screaming toddler looking for a rug rack.  What I found was a pile of indecorously stacked rugs that were impossible to see because they were all stacked on top of one another.

     After I laboriously tugged at the unwieldy rugs to get to one I thought I liked, I went through the laboriously difficult task of finding a clerk to help me with the tangled mass of fiber I wanted to buy.  When I tracked carpet/rug guy down, he went through a tediously laborious process by which the carpet in question was massaged up to the top of the heap and laid out.  With a crazed and slightly twitchy look, he asked, "Do you still like and want this rug?"  He quoted the price with fear in his voice.

     The immature side of me wanted to say, "Nah, just lookin."  BUT, I really did want to buy the rug in question.  With relief he rolled up my new acquisition and made me wait as he massaged the pile back into order.  The whole process was really really really awkward and difficult.  The reward, the purchase, hardly seemed worth the effort the clerk went through and the pay he earned manipulating eight foot by ten foot rugs.  I asked why on earth they did not have a rack and why did they keep doing it that way.  He responded with something that had me groaning, "Well, we just always do it like that."

     How many times do I have to stop myself from doing things the hard and laborious way when there is a simpler solution?  And how many times do I keep up my broken tradition just because, "We've always done it that way?"  I cry out to the Father to show me how my eyes can be opened to the difficult and broken patterns of my life and have Him show me the better way.