January 13, 1999
DOWN HOME:
With these sheets, I might
as well be wearing Velcro
___Next Christmas, I'm asking Santa Claus for some Teflon jammies.
___Traditionally, of course, we think of flannel as the winter pajamas of choice. What could be better than flannel in the winter? It's soft, cuddly and warm. Who wouldn't want flannel in winter? Me, for one.
___Not since Joanna started putting flannel sheets on the bed, anyway.
___Her logic is impeccable, as you might guess. Flannel sheets are soft, cuddly and warm. And the very best thing about flannel sheets is that they'renot cold to the touch.
Marv Knox
Editor
___Don't you just hate it when you crawl into bed on a cold winter night and those cotton sheets feel like they've just been draped over an iceberg? They freeze your feet off. Everyone knows it's hard to get to sleep when your sheets are so frigid they take your breath away.
___Not so with flannel. Did I tell you flannel is soft, cuddly and warm? You can crawl between flannel sheets and feel like a fuzzy ol' bear hibernating in a warm cave. Unless you're wearing flannel pajamas. Then, you might as well be wearing Velcro.
___See, flannel sticks to flannel. That may be fine for you if you get in bed and lie in the exact same position all night. No problem.
___But try rolling over in flannel sheets wearing flannel jammies. You can do it, but you take the whole bed with you.
___I used to have this wonderful plaid flannel nightshirt my mom and dad gave me. It's soft, cuddly and warm. And it almost killed me.
___Everything was fine at first. I hopped into bed, smooched Jo goodnight and lay down on my left side. Just as I was on the threshold of slumber, that little gyroscope in my head told me to roll to my right side.
___A 180-degree turn of my body enfolded me in a flannel nightshirt, two thicknesses of flannel sheets and umpteen layers of covers that shifted in the deal. I felt like a claustrophobic moth in a flannel cocoon. And I'm here to tell you: Suffocation is not a satisfactory solution for insomnia.
___The other night, as I struggled to shift from my right side to my back in order to save up energy for a shift to my left, I thought of flannel-on-flannel as a metaphor for the way we sometimes get bound up in sin.
___The attitudes we wear around with us coupled with the temptations and turmoil we bump up against in the daily coming-and-going of life can be a dangerous, stifling combination.
___We need to Teflon our lives against the snares of temptation. Prayer, Bible study, regular worship, fellowship with other Christians and personal accountability will do the job.
___Unlike flannel, sin is not soft, cuddly and warm.Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!