Right Side Out

A devotional story from "Guidepost."
Right Side Out - My lesson on inner beauty
By Jeff Japinga, Holland, Michigan

"In our household, I'm the go-to-go guy on laundry day. And, truth be told, I'm pretty much a whiz. Grass stains? Can do. Mud, lasagna - does anyone know how a teenager gets lasagna on the back of a
T-shirt?- no problem. There's only one thing about the laundry that
week-in, week-out would send me around the bend : clothes coming out of the dryer inside out.
No big deal, you say? For whatever reason, it was to me. Until, I went back to school.

Not laundry school, but third grade.  A teacher-friend of mine had invited me to visit her classroom whenever I wanted and, Curious George that I am, I dropped in unannounced one day.  Frankly, the room looked like every third-grade classroom you've ever  seen, with one notable exception. All the children, absolutely every one of them, had their clothes on inside out. Shirts, pants, caps -I didn't ask about their underwear! But I did ask what was going on.

Here's what one of those third-grade students told me. Occasionally, they wear their clothes inside out to remind themselves that with people its what's on the inside that counts the most.

You won't find me at work today wth my clothes reversed, but every time I do the laundry now and  clothes come out of the dryer inside out, I don't grumble. I remember it's what 's on the inside that counts most."