This won’t be long. I don’t have time for long these days.
The kids and Josh and the dog and I have stuffed ourselves and our gobs of stuff into my parent’s house. We are so very grateful for their hospitality, but we are on top of each other here and I’m questioning what kind of logic I was using when I brought along 14 pairs of shoes.
Josh is taking days off of work and weekends to chug away at making our farmhouse livable. Fairly recently, it looked like this:
Unfortunately, my children aren’t helping to improve the picture.
Which would be okay, if Chip and Joanna Gaines were about to show up. (I checked. They only unleash their superpowers on houses near Waco.)
Instead, we’re the ones who have to make some sense out of this mess, and I don’t even know how to set a mousetrap. You can imagine how useful I am on a construction site.
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I had envisioned posting a picture on this blog—taken on closing day, of course—of Josh and I (and maybe the kids, assuming they are capable of making normal faces) smiling in front of our new home. We would look happy, six-years-worth-of-waiting-happy, to finally have our dream realized. You would be able to see the praise and relief and joy on our glowing faces. God had answered our prayers and we would mark the moment with a picture I would frame and a blog about how good God is.
To bad we completely forgot to take that picture.
Instead, we got to work. I brought in cleaning supplies and Josh ripped the cabinets straight out of the kitchen. We can’t even go back and take the picture now and pretend we took it on closing day; the growing pile of the guts of the house lying the front porch would give us right away.
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A friend and I were talking. She had had her own big prayer she was praying, and God had answered. And, just like us, she had gotten straight to work. She was mentioning how easy it was to see all the details ahead of her, get busy with them, and completely forget that she had prayed and that God had answered.
And it’s true, isn’t it? We pray for God to give us what we want, and when he does, our memories become strangely fuzzy. We get lost in the big, busy details and we forget what he has done. We forget that he’s answered our prayers. We forget that he is always faithful.
There is still time in to rejoice in him, both in his answers to the big prayers and his daily provision through the details.
Don’t be like me. Don’t miss the chance to stop and thank him for how he’s answered your prayers.
Do it. Right now. I will too.
Let’s remember and rejoice in how faithful God is together. Let’s not let the details distract us any longer.
And I’m gonna take that picture, old dishwasher on the porch and all.
Because we have a good God, friends.
I want to remember that. How about you?
This is exactly the truth. We always envision life being wonderful when we get the children we’ve been praying for, or the new job, or the new house. And every time there is all kinds of new work to go with the new blessing.
The saving grace is that when we are up to our eyeballs in “I can’t possibly do this, and I was out of my mind to ask for it” thoughts, we can always go back and remember that we asked God and he gave it to us because it was good for us.
Praying for you all.
Yes, yes. Having kids certainly didn’t pan-out to be the blissful gerber-baby moments I was envisioning while I was pregnant. It’s harder work than I ever expected, but I was just staring at sweet Nate’s face this morning and thinking how God has carried us through. And he won’t abandon us now, either.
Thank you for those prayers. We need them more than anything else.
We bought a house that we planned to completely renovate. I had absolutely no idea how to do anything, but luckily my husband did. I learned so much in the first bathroom we put in and each room looks a little better than the last! You will learn, you will make mistakes, shed blood and tears, but in the end, it’s your house that has your personal touch on everything you look at! Just be ready for all the imperfections you find that you weren’t expecting!
Ooh, good reminder, Margaret. Imperfections I wasn’t expecting…yes, I need to be prepared for those. I keep trying to remember that this is not reality TV…it’s not going to be perfect, it’s not going to be cheap, and I don’t get to go on a all-expenses-paid vacation while someone else makes it beautiful. 😉 This is real-life, and learning to remodel a bathroom is not going to hurt me in the end. 🙂 Thanks for the encouragement!
I’m with you! We and all our stuff are crammed in my in-law’s house, too. I’m so thankful to God and them for this place to stay, but feeling so displaced, too. Our closing day is coming (hopefully), and we won’t have a lot of renovation to do (we’re both too handiless to do it), but the work of moving in all our stuff while homeschooling is still ahead. I like your reminder to stay thankful!
Yes, feeling displaced is the word, Heather. I’m glad you can relate. And certainly homeschooling while moving is enough to handle. You were smart not to throw renovations in there, as well. I’m really questioning our sanity in this. We keep reminding ourselves that, Lord willing, we will probably be in this house for years and years. So we’ll be glad we did this remodeling on the front end. (We think. 🙂 Thanks for reading, sweet friend.
Your words are always so timely for me, Hannah! Praying for you and your family as you give praise and hunker down into remodeling.
Thank you, Allison! I am so very thankful for your prayers!