Nice But Houses and Humility

Last night I was complaining to my mom about how the house I really wanted for our family just sold. If you’ve ever been on the house hunt, you’ve probably seen some Nice Buts: “It’s nice, but….” Several houses we’ve looked at before have some flaw, such as the yard being too little or the kitchen needing redone or the fourth bedroom being non-existent. But, this house that just sold…it had no buts. It was perfect. I saw us living there forever.

So last night I lay in bed feeling sorry for myself. And then I thought of a friend who was struggling with a horrible family crisis. And then I thought of my grandmother who is having health issues. And then I thought of another friend who is battling breast cancer she thought was in remission. The sufferings of people I love all swarmed into my heart.

I’m not usually one who dwells on the “count yourself blessed by looking at all those hurting around you” ideology, but one person after another came into my mind, and I started crying.

I was humbled. Immensely humbled.

Our condo has been on the market for months now; we are tired of cleaning it last minute for potential buyers who never buy, and we are ready for a bigger home and a backyard with a swing for Jack. But, you know what? Our condo is beautiful. It is a wonderful home, and I have always loved it. We feel safe. We have good neighbors. I can walk to work. We keep saying it is too small for the plans we have to adopt, but even if we put three kids in one room, this place is not really that small. We are beyond blessed.

I used to think that Galatians read, “You will reap what you sow.” I remember the day I saw it actually says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

This verse makes me think of two things: in the proper time. If we are meant to have a bigger house in the neighborhood we drive through and dream of, it will come. But right now, I think He’s trying to teach me a lesson on contentment. He’s blessed us so much already. My first post on this blog was a promise to myself to remember to be here, and for months I’ve been dreaming of our life there.

So I will hop online and search for some sort of way to get Jack a swing on our back deck, and we will keep cleaning for pop-in-potentials, and I will thank God that we have a lovely home here.

 Jay unlocking the door to our condo for the first time after we bought it.

 Our first visitor at the new place about three years ago: we said this was a good sign as we pretended it was Norris, the same bunny from the apartments we lived in down the road before we bought our condo.

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