For Sale Sign Lessons & Some Driveway Praying

Showings, showings, and then more showings. 

 For a year, a sign stood in our yard. 

For that year, we left every.single.weekend for a showing. 

Once, twice, three times in a weekend. 

Weekdays?  Free game as well.  We could get a call at any time telling us that someone wanted to see the house...in an hour. 

 

As a result, our love to host selves hosted less.  I had to say no to lots of potentially messy art projects and lots of potentially messy play.  Always in the back of mind I was planning for scheduled showings and potential showings. 

 

We straightened, we cleaned, we polished and then we vacuumed away our footprints.  Then, we loaded the littles in the car, and proceeded to do lots of driving around, looking for free things to do.  :)  Last but not least, we returned home, usually to find them still there, so we lurked down the street until they drove away.

 

One week later, we'd get feedback that the families loved our house, but hated our property. 

 

Fun times.  

 

Like all seasons in our lives though, God had lessons to teach. 

It took me some time, and I resisted at all cost, but I learned a few things...

 

 

~Anything in your life that you want can become an idol.

 

~It is easy to spend much time wanting, and less time valuing what is already had.

 

~The frustrations of parents are often unfairly taken out on littles.

 

~Distraction makes for poor parenting.

 

~A three story home with multiple rooms, bathrooms, sinks with clean running water and a garage that won't sell is a first world problem. 

 

~God cares about the details of your life, but cares most about the state of your heart. 

 

~We are not in control. 

 

~Kids don't care about perfection.  Our less than ideal yard was usually filled with kids collecting rocks and sticks and our extra steep driveway provided all kinds of rolling fun. 

 

 

Then, one day after lessons had been learned, the offer came. 

Two in fact.  A friend had suggested that I lay my hands on our driveway and pray that our steep driveway would not be an obstacle. 

So, one Saturday as we left for showings, I stepped onto the driveway and prayed with my hand on concrete.  Two offers came that day. 

God spoke and I had learned better how to listen. 

The offer came, we signed a zillion papers and we started to pack. 

We took pictures of every room, then got weepy as we boxed up our lives.

A hard year was ending and a chapter was closing. 

As we packed up, we saw our former lives as new parents in reflection. 

And those reflections were sweet. 

 

The house, that we had so wanted to be rid of,

had actually filled us up to full with blessings, memories and gifts. 

 

Lessons learned.