The Bible isn't a Laundry manual

Many years ago I decided that instead of resenting all the laundry I had to do I would use the time for prayer and reflection. When I do the ironing, I pray for the person whose clothes I am ironing. When ironing sheets I pray for rest for those who will sleep in them, and when ironing napkins I pray that the food will be blessed and the fellowship around the table will be joyful. I sometimes do the same thing when folding clothes.
The truth is, there are still many times I find myself grumbling doing laundry. I get frustrated with the mismatched socks, the wadded up clothes that I have to untangle, and the ever present shirts inside out.
Growing up, I was told, "If you leave it inside out, it gets washed and folded that way." So as often happens, I just follow that along into adulthood. Until a few weeks ago--I decided that I would turn every shirt and pray while doing it. I decided that this would be an act of love and service. "Really," I thought to myself, "What's the big deal?" For several weeks I have very proudly turned every shirt as though each was a notch in the peg of becoming world's greatest mother. I admit I even thought, "One day the children will remember this."
Yesterday while doing laundry and reflecting on this, and I must admit thinking about how I was so unlike my own mother. I realized how incredibly full of pride I was for turning shirts. My act of love and service had become a way for me to glorify myself and honestly a way to criticize my mother. Pride and arrogance had taken the place of servanthood and love. And I began reflecting-
Why did my mother not turn our clothes? Perhaps it was because she was in a hurry or perhaps it was because she was trying to teach us. Perhaps she was trying to teach us how to care for our clothes, trying to teach us to care for the things we have been given and the things we have bought. Perhaps there is a bigger lesson in this. Perhaps there is the lesson of caring for all that we have and do and treating things as well as people with respect. And I began to think about what all this could mean theologically. What does this mean for me as a Christian? Does it matter if I turn the clothes or not? What is the Christian thing to do? I couldn't come up with an absolute.
So often in our lives there are no absolutes. Every incident we encounter, every choice we have to make cannot be looked up in the Bible as though it was a policy manual. So how do we make those decisions; how do we know what the "right" thing to do is; and is there always one "right" thing?
Jesus loved. Every act he did was out of love and service to others. Jesus taught and Jesus served. He got angry and frustrated with his disciples, and he was tender with them. But everything came from love.
How should this guide my life? I must ask the question, "Why am I doing what I'm doing?" Do I turn the clothes as an act of love and service, or do I not turn the clothes as an act of love and teaching? It all comes down to love.