Another amazing weekend in the books. I think most of my Monday posts start like that. I've written about this before, but I've been praying for my house for a long time as it is deteriorating. I don't really remember praying about my furniture, however. It was in rough shape, too, but I just figured we would get newer stuff when we somehow magically renovated the house. It was given to us by a neighbour a few years ago. It was starting to show wear and tear then, and, thanks to certain children who refuse to stop using our furniture like a trampoline, it got soooo bad that we literally bought duct tape that matched the colour of the couch, as well as patches off of amazon, anything to repair the horrible tears that were getting worse and worse. I tried covering the open seams with blankets, pillows....you name it. It never worked. People would sit on them and kids would start pulling out the stuffing. Then along came a miracle.....AS USUAL!
This is where the story gets embarrassing. My parents offered up their basically brand new couches (compared to our's they looked brand new). They were moving and they didn't need them in their new space, too big. I said, "No thanks". In my mind, they were the wrong size, wrong colour, wrong shape. Our space was small and I couldn't picture two large couches in my house. The couches we had that were in such rough shape were also big and I think I had hoped for something smaller to replace them or something more who-knows-what. I just kept saying no. But I had this bad feeling in the back of my head especially when I looked at my horrible couches. I just kept thinking, "Who do I think I am? What's my problem?" That is when I officially starting praying, literally, about the couches and asking God what I was supposed to do as it was obvious I was being a fool to turn down such a great offer. I'm convinced Satan had blinded me.
I was at my daughter's place (so weird to write that!) with my other daughter who is only 14 and I told them my situation how I was being offered the couches, but I didn't want the couches, but we needed the couches....my young 14 year old said, "Mom! You're being too picky!" and my older daughter said, "Take the couches!" I immediately texted my husband and said, "We're taking the couches." I knew they were right. It was finally clear in my mind that I had been seeing things through the wrong eyes. I had something in my head (don't know where it came from) and I had them pictured in my house not fitting. I think I was picturing their living room space in my space. I quickly called my mom, hoping beyond hope that they hadn't sold them or gotten rid of them yet. Thank God they hadn't. That would have been really bad. They still had them and they went the extra mile and worked the whole moving day thing to have the couches delivered to our house so we didn't even have to get them. That was HUGE.
This is where it gets very strange and another sign that Satan was trying to blind my eyes. When the couches got in our house, they looked like totally different couches. They looked smaller! I had pictured huge couches. They weren't. They were also dark brown, just like the ones we had thrown out. I had thought the whoooooole time that they were navy. Why?! I have been at my parents house for 39 years. Why did I think that? Do I have no colour memory? How weird is that? At first they didn't quite seem to suit the space which I had been worried about, but then I did a quick furniture do-over and I reconfigured the whole space and it all came together in such a great way. Everyone thinks it looks so good. And they all look at me with, "I can't believe you almost didn't take the couches" look. Yes. I'm a dummy. Like I said, so embarrassing. We aren't the Kardashians. And maybe it comes down to pride and being willing to accept people's generosity. That can be humbling and quite frankly, I hate being humbled and in a position of humility on a fairly regular basis. But, God loves that. He works in a place of humility. He can't deal with proud people. I am so grateful for my children who called me out on it. I'm so grateful for patient parents who probably shook their heads a thousand times as I said, no, no no.....I'm grateful to God who then blesses those who are humbled and turns the couches from blue to brown and from big to small (well, that's what it seems like!) and made my family room new AGAIN.
Our kitchen has also been deteriorating. Cupboards are falling off. Drawers are stuck. The sink got cracked a few years ago. The faucet is broken. Countertops.....getting worse by the day. But, I'm learning the humility lesson. No place for pride anymore. We'd been looking for a new sink on and off for weeks if not months. Nothing was turning up that was a good price and that would fit. But then yesterday there was a perfect one really close, so off RM went and picked it up. It was perfect. So we quickly pulled out the old one and then we saw how bad the surrounding cupboards and countertops really were. They were literally falling apart, so we ripped those out and then we ended up taking out the rat-destroyed, non-functioning dishwasher/glorified dish rack, and realized we had kind of overdone it. How would we put in a sink without a cupboard or counter to support it? In came the plywood. I didn't care. I'm a newly humbled person....bring on the plywood countertop. So we placed the sink in the middle of the plywood and now I have a working sink!!!! I love it! There are no cupboards below it so it looks a little rough, but we half-hope we'll get the amazing HGTV news soon! If we don't we will figure it. I know it's not forever.
We've been looking at our house with "people coming over for the first time" eyes because my son's girlfriend-to-be is coming over this weekend. We wanted her to come see a quaint farmhouse, not a dumpy house. Well, in one weekend it went from ripped couches and broken sink to new couches and new sink and almost entirely decorated for Christmas....beautiful lights and vine decorations everywhere....so cozy. I picture her coming over and really loving our place.
So, a weekend of life lessons. The power of humility over pride was the game changer. I thought I was being humble, ironically, by saying no to new couches and living with my old ones. But that's being a martyr actually. Which, is actually pride. Oh, the irony. I was so close to missing out on blessing. That's where I truly see the miracle of God's patience, slow to anger, full of compassion towards me, abounding in love. The blessing of children and our relationship which allowed them to speak into my life!!! What if I hadn't had them in my life? I'm so grateful for their wisdom at 14 and 24 years old!!! Seeing how God miraculously took care of my old couches gives me hope for all things in my old house. He knows our situation and I can confidently sit back and trust Him.
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