For Show & Tell Friday this week, I would like to share some of the items in my linen closet. There are some embroidered tea towels, tablecloths and hand towels. I also have an appliqued tablecloth that has such beautiful detail, I almost don’t want to use it! I love detail work and I am always looking for unique pieces to add to the collection. Displaying them in different ways around the house is always a treat as well. Some of the items are very special because my grandmother embroidered them for me.

 Head on over to  There is No Place Like Home for more Show & Tell Friday posts.  Happy Friday everyone.

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction Eugene Peterson . Too often we think of religion as a far-off, mysteriously run bureaucracy to which we apply for assistance when we feel the need. We go to the local branch office and direct the clerk (sometimes called a pastor) to fill our order for God. Then we go home and wait for God to be delivered to us according to our specifications that we have set down. But that is not the way it works! . He is a potter working with the clay of our lives, forming and reforming until, finally, he has shaped a redeemed life, a vessel fit for the kingdom. . Freedom is announced and celebrated. But not many feel or act free. Evidence? We live in a nation of complainers and a society of addicts. Everywhere we turn we hear complaints: I can’t spend my money the way I want; I can’t spend my time the way I want; I can’t be myself; I am under the control of others all the time. And everywhere we meet the addicts – addiction to alcohol and drugs, to compulsive work habits and to obsessive consumption. We trade masters: we stay enslaved. . The Christian is a person who recognizes that our real problem is not in achieving freedom but in learning service under a better master. The Christian realizes that every relationship that excludes God becomes oppressive. Recognizing and realizing that, we urgently want to live under the mastery of God.