Each day I try to set a goal for the projects that I want to complete. Today's projects involved the following: Put buttonholes and buttons on a dress that I am making for a relative, Cut and adhere vinyl to a Halloween tumbler, and Cut and adhere vinyl to a special frame for my niece who recently got married.
I was dreading the buttonholes most, so I started with those. I found my buttonhole attachment rather quickly, hunted up my machine's manual to brush up on how to do them, and set to work to attempt a trial run on scrap fabric. The results were awful! I kept trying about 10 times, with only limited success. The machine would either not sew the zig-zag stitch correctly or would stop halfway through and begin beeping at me. About the time I became very frustrated, my son walked into the room to see what was going on. I handed him the manual and had him follow along as I again attempted a buttonhole. It failed again! My son, thinking he was being helpful, said, "I don't know what is wrong. It looks like you are doing everything right." Seeing that I was going to have to cave in and make the buttonholes myself, I did a quick Google search, grabbed needle and thread, and sewed them all the old fashioned way- by hand.
One project down and I knew the vinyl projects HAD to be easier. Well..... I was wrong. The vinyl cut smoothly enough and then I set about weeding the projects. The orange vinyl weeded fine for the tumbler and I smiled to myself, thinking how quickly I would be done for the day.
As I began weeding the black vinyl for the frame, it began to stick to itself. The more I gently pulled, the messier it got, to the point that vinyl stuck to vinyl and destroyed the bottom third of my design. Oh well, I thought to myself, no problem. I will just cut it again. That should be simple. I went to my computer, prepared the design, and cut the vinyl. I carried my new cut to the living room and sat down in the floor, knowing that this would only take a few minutes. As I looked at it, however, I soon realized that my cuts were not matching up. I had forgotten to mirror the image! A third time I returned to the computer, cut the vinyl, and finally finished my two projects.
Sometimes in our Christian life our days go like my morning. We try and try and try again, but things just don't go the way we plan or the way we would like.
Romans 5:3-5 says,
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
It is much easier to try things one time and then just give up. It is more difficult to suffer through our failures and continue to trudge on, attempting again and again if necessary. We may offer witness to a friend, only to have them shrug a shoulder and turn away. It is harder to go to another friend and even more difficult to return to that same friend and attempt witness again. But, if we do continue to persevere, we develop endurance and character, along with a hope that we will eventually reach that friend.
As for me and my project....
Here is the finished product!
I persevered! I am very pleased with the final result and I am sure that it will be a blessing for my niece and her new husband.
Such good advice and love your completed project.
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