A story of gratitude

Okay guys I have a little story for you. It's a story about a woman for whom ungratefulness was no longer an option. It goes like this...

This woman and her husband and four darling children bought a new house. It was big and beautiful and they couldn't wait to start painting and make it their own.

They moved in and noticed a little mold. After a week of living there they had to leave so it could be remediated. Turns out, the entire house was covered with mold.

After bouncing around from friends to family for 3 months and this woman and her kids being apart from her loving husband and their sweet father, their friends gave them a camper to use.

This little family moved into a small camper in their yard. More mold and more problems kept popping up and they slowly went from being committed to doing the work in the house to realizing it was probably not realistic.

The little family of 6 now lives in the camper in their yard full time as they try to exhaust every last option.

Today that mom had a bit of a surreal moment. The breaker popped in the camper, yet again. She had just gotten home from a huge grocery trip with her kids and after lugging all the groceries into the camper and trying to look around to find where she would put all of them, she turned on the air conditioner. Pop. She flipped the breaker and it popped yet again when she turned on the air. As she walked through the house to flip the circuit breaker, she looked around. She remembered how happy she was about the attached garage so that she could park in it and bring her groceries right through the hallway into the house. As she walked to the basement, she was struck by how good the cool basement air felt on a hot day like today. She imagined that if she was living in the house, she would have parked and brought all of those groceries in while her kids escaped to the basement to cool off and relax for a while while she put the groceries away.

And she got a little angry inside. She got angry that they gave so much money to this house. She got angry that she had to walk through her big dream house to pop the breaker for her little camper where the thermostat said 91°.

And then she remembered. She remembered that she couldn't afford to think about the what-ifs. She couldn't afford to think about anger. She couldn't afford to go there. Too much was on the line. You see, the enemy had been after her heart all along. He wanted to see her dissatisfied and jealous. He wanted to see her angry and discontent. He wanted to see her question her God. And, you see, she knew this. She knew what he was after. So she picked up her head and walked out to that little camper and thanked God for those sweet little children that used a wheelbarrow to bring in her groceries. And she smiled with joy because her husband was coming home from work soon and she gratefully put away each of those things she had purchased because she was able to buy her children food and clothing. And she stood on the truth she knew. And she remembered the promises God has made.

That woman had too much on the line. She had too much to lose if she gave in. So she let the truth wash over her and submitted to Jesus and let him purify her mind. And suddenly, 91° never felt so good.

How to get bad news...

I wrote this one a month ago but I'm FINALLY getting to posting it. Here's a little update...

Okay friends, I gotta get real with you today. 2018 is NOT going how we planned. Alert. 2018 is NOT going according to plan.

Some of you know that we recently sold our first home. Our 1100 square foot first home. We loved it. It was adorable. It was tiny. And we bought a rather large, BEAUTIFUL home on 11 acres of beautiful land. The home is amazing with incredible views and an (awesomely) unique layout that feels like you're in a vacation home. We've waited years for a move like this, always saying we didn't want an "in-between" home for 5-10 years. We just wanted to wait and so we did.

The house was a little outdated in paint, etc and had a few repairs we were prepared to do but we could absolutely see what it would look like with our own touches on it. We daydreamed and planned until it was time to move in.

A couple days after we moved, I noticed mold in the basement. I looked around and found some more. A month later [2 months later now] and here I sit. In Pittsburgh. At my parent's house. Because my house has been mostly gutted. I'll be perfectly honest and say we have no idea what we're going to do. I started to list everything that needs to be done but had to stop myself because it was too intense. No. Idea. What. We. Will. Do.

And today we got more bad news.

I feel like we've been pretty even keel. Doing what we need to do to be responsible and trying to stay focused on our job/college/homeschooling and marriage and being parents (albeit long distance for the last ones.) We've been encouraging each other and staying the course. But today was different. Today was much more intense and although we stayed positive on the phone with each other, we both fell apart a bit after. I stayed in shock for about an hour and thankfully my mom took over when I had to leave the room before I yelled at a kid. I walked downstairs and through my tears muttered, "I can't do this." I can't parent and be kind and patient and care about them wanting an apple when I said no or wanting to play instead of going to bed. I can't do that while I'm falling apart. I'm not capable. And the moment I said, "I can't do this.", my next thought was, "But HE can. Jesus, I need you. Holy Spirit, fill me. I can't do this but you can." Filled with determination, I walked to my dad's study to be alone and as I sat down in his chair, I started singing a song many of you might remember from childhood, "The wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man built his house upon the rock, and the rains came tumbling down. The rains came down and the prayers went up... And the house on the rock stood firm." The song is talking about building our house (life) on Jesus, our rock. Because he is always faithful and never changing, our house will stay firm if built on Him. But when our life is built on the changing sands of this world (friendships, money, power, jobs, kids, houses, status, etc), it's sure to "go splat" like I believe the song says. Those things are ever shifting and changing. They'll never bring the security we desire.

As I thought more, I realized that my intense emotions were because I wasn't firmly planted in my faith. After talking to Eric and my mom, fully encouraged in my faith, my mom started talking about joy and I remembered that in the Bible, Nehemiah says, "Don't be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." I don't know that I've experienced it in such a strong way before. As soon as I turned my eyes to the Lord, I felt SO strong and full of joy. When I placed my joy in HIM, I was strong, but when I was placing my joy in financial security and a house, I was weak and easily attacked. And I don't like feeling weak. So I will anchor myself in the Lord and if we lose all financial security and everything goes wrong, I will not have lost out. 

"And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?" Luke 9:25

I won't be lost or destroyed. In fact, it's been a while since I was this focused and secure. I was so looking forward to living in the beautiful home we've dreamed of for so long. I was excited for the earthly feeling of success (even though I hated thinking that way.) But I'm clear again. And I'm strong. And while I hope so much that everything works out wonderfully and that God tangibly blesses us in amazing ways and that this miraculously isn't an epic financial setback, the spiritual implications here are huge. And you can't put a price tag on that.