Tag Archives: fall leaves

Cleaning out the Old to make room for New!

8 Oct

 

Cleaning out the Old to make room for New!

Have you ever wanted to just make over a room in your house, or just do something different to change it up a bit?

“Hey let’s put down hardwood floors” I pleaded with my husband. For years I begged, “Let’s get rid of the carpet, it will help the whole family breathe better!”  Well finally a few weeks ago, we went and purchased flooring.  We ordered a huge pallet of flooring and brought it home on Saturday.  Yay!  I am so excited! Well, since we decided to change out the floor, of course I purchased paint for the walls, and bought paint for a few other projects that I want to do to coordinate with the walls and flooring!  I’ve got just one more stop at my local home decor store to purchase draperies and a few other little accessories to bring it all together!

Well the whole idea sounded wonderful, so this blog is to remind myself that “It will be worth it after I go through all the stuff! My Living room will be beautiful once everything is finished!”  Call me naïve but I had no clue what tearing up carpet would be like!  I knew it would be a dirty job of course, I wasn’t totally oblivious!  After all we’ve had the same carpet down for fourteen years.  However, those big ol’ two pronged staples in the padding, that had to be pried up out of the plywood floor, well let’s just say “Pain in the Neck and a few other places, literally!”   After crawling on all fours, cutting carpet, prying, pulling, sweeping, vacuuming, and pulling some more, let me just say, “UGH! But it will be worth it when the remodeling is complete!”

As I was thinking of all of cleaning out of the old to make room for the new, I really became inspired! Isn’t this really what life is about?  I am constantly ministering to others who are really going through rough times!  I always tell them “Whatever you are going through will pass!  It did not come to stay!”  This is not just a little quick fix thing that I tell them.  No I realize depending on the circumstances that they are going through, sometimes it takes a long time for something to pass or to change!  This applies to good or bad things in our lives.  Life is a series of change!  Change has to take place to cause us to be what God the creator created us to be!

A picture comes to mind of a beautiful butterfly! The butterfly begins its life cycle as an egg, then larva (caterpillar), pupa (cocoon) and then finally when it goes through complete metamorphosis or change the adult butterfly struggles to emerge!  Wow, how beautiful that adult butterfly is!   I love this picture as it holds in my opinion just a true picture of all God’s creation.  We as humans are in a constant mode of change!  This is why we should never judge others! God’s not through with them yet, or with you or me!  That person that you may think will never amount to anything may be on their road to becoming the greatest Evangelist,  President,  Teacher, Mother, Nobel Peace Prize winner…they may be the ones who have the answers to cure cancers or other diseases!  The point being, they are in a state of change, even though  your  first impressions of  them  may be that act like “Hellions!”  They are not going to be like they are forever!  The Bible says that if we are in Christ that we are being changed from faith to faith and from glory to glory!

Butterfly

 

Yes, I am cleaning out the old to make room for the new in my home, but spiritually God is constantly helping me to do the same in my life. I am going through some remodeling! I think the main thing to remember is that we need to constantly be aware of the changing process.  We need to learn how to enjoy our journey and become excited about the changes especially if we are Christians!  If we are Christians then we know that we have a Heavenly Father that only has our best interest at heart and is always for us. He sees the beginning from the end and everything in between!  I am a firm believer in the saying that “If He takes you to it, He will take you through it!”  As I stated at the beginning of this blog, “It will be worth it after I go through all of the stuff!   It will be worth it after the remodeling is complete!  I encourage you my friend, it will be worth it!

 

Distractions!

1 Oct

Distractions!.

Distractions!

1 Oct

Distractions!

Cup of Coffee 

 

This morning which began very early for me, has been some kind of morning! Can anyone relate?  I did hear a great report on the morning newscast that today was National Coffee Day, which believe me, I took full advantage of …I am now on my second pot… So anyway, my mind was just reeling with great and wonderful Blog ideas to lift and encourage my wonderful attentive readers, but for some reason, they left me, not immediately but simultaneously as I began thinking about which one to write about…so the following is what I have come up with.

Have you ever had a deadline? Or maybe something that you needed to do for work, but you kept getting distracted?  If not you’ve never experienced this thing called distraction, I invite you to come and live in my world just for one Monday!  Today has been one of those kinds of days when I feel like I am working hard, but nothing is getting accomplished.    I’ve thought to sit down and do this blog many times this morning, but distractions keep happening!  The telephone has been ringing off of the hook. Oops, I apologize to anyone who is reading this that tried to reach me this morning! No, I have not answered my phone…..every time it rang out, But I do have a great excuse…I have to do my blog on Monday’s and well….I really can’t be distracted!

Okay, so I started my Monday morning routine of putting in a load of laundry. I then finally began my blog when all of a sudden…Why is that washing machine making that kind of noise?  I stopped and ran to the washing machine! When I raised the lid, somehow, all of the clothes had shifted on one side which was causing it to spin crooked…Oh well, I will spare you the details, but if you’ve ever got clothes off kilter in your washing machine you are familiar with the kind of sound and the sheer panic that drove me to run to my machine before it danced across the room .  So I fixed the clothes and got back to work…

Well, Dear Lord, What was that…Oh no…I will be back the dog just coughed and made a noise and I will spare you the horrible details…..Resolve carpet cleaner and a roll of paper towels later, yes I am finally back….so as I am beginning to really think about what I am going to write, I hear “Good morning!”

“Good morning, Son!”

Normally my boys are very quiet and want some alone time to get awake before they carry on conversation, but no…not today….it was as though they decided to divide and conquer…Both of them were like the energizer bunny…..They fussed over whose turn it was to feed and water the dog, they fussed about who was going to touch their nasty soccer socks that were left in a gym bag since Saturday, they fussed over the T.V. and breakfast and then fussed with me as I finally intervened and said “Oh, by the way boys, it is time to get to work!  Yes, work, something your mother has been trying to do all morning….without much success, I may add!”

Finally, after I made special ordered smoothies for both boys for breakfast, I sipped on another cup of coffee, threw the  load of laundry in the dryer, settled the argument about which son’s turn it was to feed and water the poor innocent dog…. And helped my youngest son work a crossword puzzle for English, I began this blog! Honestly though, my wonderful blog ideas turned to random thoughts until they came to finally rest upon Distractions!  The following is a definition of distraction according to Collins English Dictionary.

dis•trac•tion (dɪˈstræk ʃən) 

  1. the act or an instance of distracting or the state of being distracted
  2. something that serves as a diversion or entertainment
  3. an interruption; an obstacle to concentration
  4. (Psychology) mental turmoil or madness

 

I thought the definition of distraction suited my day perfectly, sometimes even my life! However, I also realize that regardless of how chaotic my life may become for the most part, if it is in my control, I can simply stop it. I can either choose to stay in the chaos or run to a safe and peaceful place!  So I stopped everything…..Hold the presses…….or in my case just stop typing….Tell the kids, I will be in a little bit!

I then find a peaceful place and get quiet. I breathe and simply whisper an open invitation for the Father to come!  As He accepts my invitation, I feel His sweet presence and His wonderful peace.  At this moment with Him, there are no distractions, just He and I.  There is nothing like having Him near, as I repent that I should have done this before trying to start my day…I usually always begin my day in worship and prayer, but this morning, guess what…you got it, I let myself become distracted….But now I have clarity, and Oh yes, that wonderful blog idea was about being lured away with simple things to steal our peace!

Isaiah 26:3 (KJV) Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

So Lord, use these words to encourage someone whose life is riddled by distraction today.  Help them stop, take a deep breath and say “I am running into your peace right now Father because all of the distractions come only to steal my peace and my time!”  Thank you Father that you perfect that which concerns us today!

 

%d bloggers like this: