Thursday, January 14, 2010

Be careful what you pray for, you might just get it.

Things have been pretty heavy and deep in the blog house lately. A lot going on and a lot of things on my heart. But I wanted to share something a little lighter but still amazing, at least it is in my opinion.

My pastor’s wife, Martha Fry, wrote a little while ago about “God cares about what we care about.” I thought it was a great post and having a daughter the same age I totally understood where she was coming from.

Well, I had an issue that dealt with my own sense of approval that I am frankly very embarrassed to admit.


We have a cute, cottage home, not large by any means, but over the past 8 years, two dogs, a cat, and a WH and DD, and just the multiple comings and going of life, plus a dog that is confused about exactly where she is supposed to go to relieve herself, the carpet had gotten bad. Okay, honestly, it was disgusting and I did not want anyone to come to our house because I was embarrassed by it. I know, I know, it doesn’t matter, people love you, they aren’t coming to judge you on your carpet, blah, blah, blah. I had heard it all, but I just knew that people would walk in the door and think horrible things about me due to our carpet. A woman and her home are connected in a visceral, love me, love our home.

But anyway….. (no I can never tell a short story, deal with it.)

So, I wanted to get some girlfriends together to talk about a book, “What Happens When Women Say Yes to God” but I didn’t want to have it at our house. But God had other ideas. I kept getting this heaviness on my heart, nudging me, to open our home to my girlfriends. I finally woke up one morning about 3:00 a.m. and sat down in the living room, amidst the gross carpet, and just cried my eyes out and told God that yes, I would be obedient to what He had placed on my heart, but I did ask Him one thing. I said, “God, can I please have new carpet.”

Now, when I asked this I was being totally 100% real with my heavenly Father. I know there are so many other things in this world that are really huge obstacles, pain, and frustrations that people have and they cry out to God and I believe that God always answers, just perhaps not like what we thought. And as selfish and self-absorbed as I felt asking God for new carpet, I knew there was no way we could afford it but I also knew that I would have an extremely difficult time concentrating on my friends if I was worried about our home.



Well, anyway, I was obedient to God’s leading and I opened up our home, nasty carpet and all, and then, one evening, I noticed our kitchen floor was wonky (I love that word). I asked WH about it and he investigated and low and behold, there was a leak and not just any leak, but a major leak behind the refrigerator that had leaked into the dry wall and under the floor. The kitchen floor, which was the ONLY floor in the house that was in great shape. (Irony? ya think?) I admit I wondered if perhaps God had gotten my request mixed up with someone else.

We contacted a contractor, who came out and took a look. He then informed us that we would need to replace THE ENTIRE KITCHEN FLOOR. I thought I would faint right there.

But then…

He walked into our living room, and he pulled back the carpet, and low and behold, the flooring was ruined there too, and the carpet would have to be replaced.

I just started laughing and shook my head and said, “Thank you God.” Because it mattered to me, so it mattered to Him. He loves me.


So now we have a new kitchen floor, new carpet in our home, and I’m about to get new paint. It’s only taken 8 years. I’m still decorating challenged so I’m taping those same girlfriends that were coming over to have coffee to come with paintbrushes and laughter and our house will finally be a place that I want to call a home and a place that reminds me every day, with every step I take on our new carpet, how much God loves me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

can't wait to see it! :)

God's ways never are our ways... He's way more creative!