We rarely have all our kids around. The older ones are so busy that we just don't see them as much. The reason we were all together was so strange! Church was cancelled! In all my years of going to church, I don't think I ever remember that happening, but it happened. There was an ice storm going on in the middle of April. What a strange thing to happen. But it meant we could all be together and it made for a wonderful Sunday. We had actually not missed church, oddly enough. We'd gone to a Saturday evening service the night before to see my niece get baptized, so we had all been able to go to church together then.
We even were able to watch a movie together - A Case for Christ, the movie about Lee Strobel's book by the same name. What a tear-jerker. Well, for me, anyway. Such a testimony of how a wife's prayers impacted her husband and ultimately saved him spiritually.
As we continue to renovate our home, I'm constantly challenged to keep things in perspective and to make sure I remain in a position of contentment. The reason it is a challenge is always the same - things take too long to finish, the disorder of the home in the meantime, blah, blah, blah. But, it just takes one look at the news lately and I'm immediately put back in a position of, "Relax, lady. You just need to keep your thoughts to yourself."
There has been more than one story now of people who have overextended themselves on their housing purchases when the market was super hot. They found themselves paying sometimes several hundred thousand dollars more than the home was worth and would then get themselves in a bidding war. The results have been devastating and the stress very real. Now that the housing market has cooled down, they are still stuck with the payments that their overpriced house require. In their overzealousness (new word?) they purchased their pricey homes without selling the ones they owned and now they cannot sell those either for what they had hoped. Just reading their stories gave me stress! One of the homeowners said something like, "This is the worst stress I've ever experienced in my life." No doubt.
One family bid on a house and offered way more than they could afford and then renegged on their offer. The seller sued and won. This couple now owes nearly $500,000 to this other family. They're going to have to sell their current home which is now not worth as much either, pay the other home owners and then rent. They may not ever be able to buy again. Talk about being in over their heads. Talk about buyers remorse.
So I read these stories and I slap my own face. Get a grip! Desiring a nice home is wonderful. I think God wants us to be good stewards of our things. But I want to always make sure I don't create a frenzy in my own mind, just like these people who over-extended themselves. They surely were listening to lies that had convinced them the houses were worth that much. The real estate agents certainly don't have their client's best interest at heart. In this case, the real estate agent told them their offer wasn't high enough and that "in order to have an edge over the other offers" they should pay more, $250,000 more! Where does the frenzy start? In our minds.
I was reading Zechariah the other day and in chapter 3, there is a verse where Joshua is described, "Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him." (3:1) What a picture. Satan standing right beside him so he could whisper things in his ear to accuse him. Isn't that what goes on all day in our heads if we aren't aware of Satan and his tactics?
I listened to my son yesterday. He's 18, nearly 19 in a few weeks. He's completing his 1st year of university, about to go off to India for 10 days, hoping he gets the dream job he's always wanted, working with dolphins and whales (interviewed last week for it), but, the one thing he struggles with is....wait for it....he is sharing a room with 2 little brothers, 5 and 7. Hilarious struggle in my opinion. Very sweet in my opinion. But to him, it's starting to get to him. He wanted his own space yesterday. He was cleaning up his room so he had a better study space and all he found was stinky socks, Lego, tons of garbage, misplaced toys...he was ready to move out. I had to have the "contentment talk" with him, too. I could picture the accuser in his ear, "You know, you are probably the only 18 year old alive who has to share with two little brothers. You should really have your own space. They really get on your nerves, don't they? Yeah, you need to complain more, really make a stink about this. It isn't fair!" And so, for a while there yesterday afternoon, there was a cloud over his head. I could almost see it, but I understood it, because I've had that cloud, too, when all I see is what I don't have instead of picturing what I do have. I've listened to the accuser, instead of being thankful to the Creator. Fortunately, he got a grip pretty quick. We promised that while he was away we would consider his concerns and maybe make some changes before he comes back.
So, maybe that was it for those other people. They heard the accuser in their heads, telling them they had to have a bigger home, a better home, price was no problem! But the thing about Satan is that once he has you believing the lie, he pulls back and watches you fall. The other stories talked about the hundreds of people who are in similar situations like the ones I've written about. So many people fell for the lie, heard the accuser and bought in. Most of them are going to face financial ruin the articles said.
I don't always catch the lies in my head right away, but I feel the cloud descend and that is my first clue that I've bought into the accuser. Zechariah 3:2 has the antidote to Satan's lies, "And the Lord said to Satan, 'The Lord rebuke you, O Satan!" I think we, too, have to rebuke Satan, in Jesus' name. Then he has to leave us alone. The next way to get rid of the cloud is immediate gratitude. I start to see the progress we've made. Instead of what we have left to go, I can see all that we've done. It's such a better way to see things! If I don't choose this way to view life, then my husband will be left with a dark and brooding wife. In his efforts to make me happy he'll easily burn himself out and that would be disastrous. I try to encourage him and thank him for how hard he works instead of complaining he didn't get enough done.
I am sorry for these people who are now facing such stress I can't even imagine, but I am grateful for the lessons I can take away from their difficult experience. It is such a good reminder about the dangers of discontentment, extreme debt, and the role the accuser plays in our life if we aren't on guard.
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