It has been quite some time since I last wrote anything for this blog. It isn't that I have no thoughts or that my mind isn't constantly moving about the ideas I ponder, I am just plain busy.
Busy is good sometimes. Taking care of our home is a little bit like painting the Golden Gate, when you finish the last screw, it is time to begin again. Recently, I went back in mind to a time 8 years ago when I was consumed with the idea of painting the trim in our hallway and bedroom. It seemed dank and dark, needing some fresh sparkle. We were still without the current addition and the space was even tighter than it is now with five small children, my husband, myself and a dog in a two bedroom space. I couldn't however muster the energy to actually do the painting on the tiny hallway. It seemed that if I started, whenever I started I could only see all the rest of the work and jobs and needs around our home that needed to be done and so I didn't start because I felt I would never finish. We would never finish, in fact we still haven't finished. Our home has been a work in progress since we moved into it some 15 years ago, with just one little boy, who will be 16 next Friday. We are still needing to paint door ways that were made from window sill some 9 years ago (and needing to thank the Lord for those door ways in spite of them needing paint), we need to install some window thingys around the sills of the windows that are part of the addition ( and thank the Lord for the windows that keep us protected from the outside), and we need to carpet most of the house and what doesn't need to be carpeted needs to be re-finished (needing to praise God for all 18 feet, that run and walk across these floors everyday). We just finished painting the kitchen and the rain started falling on the freshly painted cabinet fronts this morning which reminded me I need to be thankful for the freshness of a summer rain, like God's out pouring on my life during some very dry seasons. The laundry is never done, the dishes always need some washing, the kitchen can always stand to be mopped again, the kids sheets need changed as soon as the last set is put on freshly for the week and the dusting just doesn't stop. Even this very moment I am sure that the same hallway I was unwilling to start (that finally a friend came and helped with) needs a good painting this season or maybe the next. I am not afraid to start anymore because I will see the work around me that needs to done. My life is much like our home, always in need of a fresh coat of sweetness on some corner that has been bumped often, or some cobwebs needing to be swept out of some hidden spot I am not willing to look at yet. It is a never ending project, and inevitably when I notice a new place to be touched up my attention will be turned to the cracks and crevices around me and instead of despairing, I believe I will try to find some joy. Joy that it isn't my work, but the Hand of God who will get it all done, if I have a willing heart. After all, in the direction manual of heart repair it says this -
".....being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6
This scripture is so important to me because it shows me that even God doesn't do one quick fix and move on expecting that we will never need a touch again, that he will continue until completion WHEN the day of Jesus Christ has arrived. I am so excited to know that I am not a finished project right this moment and that like my home there will be a work done in me on a regular basis, a daily basis, an every moment basis, if I will only make myself available to His hand. God will work in me or through me one way or the other, but oh to do it willingly is some exciting stuff and today, I am grateful to be a home in need of some touch up work.
That is my story today.
These are my original thoughts, feel free to share only in their entirety with a direct link to the original posting at www.himhimthem.blogspot.com
Some are funny, some are sad, but they are all completely mine and it is important not to steal them from me....please be honest doing the right thing.
