Just before my third child, Elizabeth was born, my sister, Carol and I decided to start our own business, screen printing T- shirts. We both have some artistic talent, so screen printing seemed like a good way to use that talent. We started by making a very unprofessional looking flyer. It was 1983, and neither one of us had a computer, so you can imagine how awful this flyer was. We mailed out about a dozen flyers to local businesses and surprisingly, one of the busineses called and placed an order. We were excited, we could hardly wait to get started. At the art supply store, we bought a screen printing kit and an instruction booklet. When I think back, I'm amazed at how confident we were considering we had absolutly no idea as to what we were about to do.
We took the kit to my house and started by studying the instruction booklet. After reading and re-reading the entire booklet, we thought we had a good understanding of how to make the screen, which was the biggest part of it. We estimated that it would take about one hour from start to finish. We were excited and ready to start. We followed each step, just as the instruction booklet had said and everything seemed to be going just right. There were many steps, mixing ingredients, coating a screen, putting it under a light for a certain amount of time, washing the screen, and letting it dry.
The screen was finished and we were ready to print our first t-shirt. We carefully lined the screen up on the shirt, added the ink and slowly dragged the squeegee across the screen. As we lifted the screen, to see our first printed shirt, we were both disapointed and discouraged to see that it hadn't worked, not a drop of ink was on the shirt. Feeling very frustrated, we made screen after screen changing the process a little each time, finally after eight hours we had a screen that we could use.
We finished that job and they were actually happy with their shirts.
We mailed out additional flyers, orders came in, and we had to make more screens. We weren't sure what we had done right to get that first screen to finally work. Knowing how hard it had been the first time, left us feeling anxious. But after many mistakes, we learned exactally what we needed to know to make a perfect screen every time. We found that we didn't get a perfect screen by doing just one thing right, it was a very complicated process , and just reading the directions wasn't enough to get it right the first time, or the second or the third or the forth.
At the end of a year, we had mastered the complicated process of screen printing. We hadn't done it by just reading the directions, but more so by hands on experience. We could have had those directions memorized, word for word and it wouldn't have been enough to make a screen. Experience was the best teacher.
A month or so after we had gotten into the business, I remember meeting a lady who was also in the screen priting profession. I told her about all the problems we had making the first screen, and she told me that she had been making screens for so long, that she could probably make one in her sleep. I remember thinking, "Wow, I wonder if I'll ever be like her?" At the end of two years, I felt as though I too could make a screen in my sleep!
Repetition, trial and error is what taught us what we needed to do each step of the way. Learning that way turned something very complicated into something easily done.
I have read the new testiment a few times. I have read about half of the old testiment, and heard pastors talk about the Bible most of my life. reading studying and memorizing is so important. The next step is trying to follow those instructions for a Christian life. We may have a hard time at first, just like Carol and I did when we tried putting the knowledge from reading into practice. But unlike Carol and I, we have a teacher, a counselor, the Holy Spirit, and with the Holy Spirit's help, I believe we can succeed. Jesus said in John 14: 26, "But the counslor, the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and remind you of everything I have said to you."
So read, study and learn the Bible, but also be hands on and you will overcome.
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