Counting Cross-stitches

I learned to enjoy handwork from my mother. She taught me to embroidery on dishcloths, pillowcases, and table runners. I don't do much embroidery anymore, but I use those skills when I do cross-stitching. My eyes are getting old and I have a hard time seeing those little squares but I just buy stronger reading classes and enlarge the patterns more. My next purchase may be a large magnifier to wear around my neck to help me see more clearly.

I wanted to leave something special for each of my grandchildren, so a few years ago I decided to stitch them each a Christmas stocking. I have completed three out of six stockings, and am working on the fourth one now, and loving every minute of it. But this weekend I learned a very valuable lesson that I would like to pass on.

In my crocheting and my cross-stitching I have learned to "cheat" a little. If I don't have the exact number of stitches on a row of an afghan, I can increase or decrease as needed and no one can ever tell. I am pretty cleaver at hiding my mistakes. I am also good at helping others hide theirs, or helping them make something look alright after they have reached the point they can't figure out what to do. One time a friend brought me an afghan she was working on because she was in desperate need of help. She had tried to undo some of her work and it just wasn't "undo-ing" correctly and she didn't know what was wrong. It didn't take me long to see she was unpicking from the wrong end, from the beginning of the rows instead of the end. I really had to work backward to get that cleared up.

A few weeks ago as I was working on the Christmas stocking I started working on a new area of the pattern. I counted very carefully over several squares to start this area because it used the same color of thread that I just finished using and I didn't want to change threads. I continued working on the new area until it was ready to be tied into the rest of the completed part. This is when I found it didn't fit in right. Somewhere in my counting I had gotten off, I had made a mistake.

Normally I would be able to just "cheat" a little and make it work, but it was too far off this time and the picture was going to be out of porportion. I have had to pick out the work I had worked on for several day. Would anyone have noticed the mistake? I don't know, perhaps not, but probably because it was about 3 rows off and would end up making everything look just a bit funny in that area.

How many times do we get "just a little bit off"? How many times do we try to cover up a little mistake? Many times our mistakes don't affect the total outcome and we can go on without any problems, the final picture look just fine. But how much "off" is too much? Where does the step happen that creates a problem that causes us to unpick our work?

Repentence is an "unpicking" process. We have to recognize that our mistake will cause a flaw in the big picture and we need to be willing to unpick the threads and correct that mistake. The Lord knows none of us are perfect and allows us to "blend" in our mistakes and still create a good picture of our lives. We don't have to unpick everything, just work around it to correct the wrongs. But there are times when we need to completely take those threads out and start that area again.

There are some threads in that area of my picture that can remain, as long as I selectively those that don't belong there. I am able to start over again and will have a better outcome than before. I have learned that it isn't always best to jump ahead and fill in areas before I work up to that spot. Take things section by section instead of jumping around. Work on one area of my life and get it right before jumping to another without the experience I need to make it right.

With the Lord's help I will be able to complete the picture of my life and all the threads will be in the right place with the right number of squares.