Sometimes the Best Things Come from Your Mistakes

Most people know that I love to decorate.  The Rev. once asked me if I was almost done decorating the parsonage.  I just gave him a look.  I am never done.  Once I get things the way I want them, I decide it's time for a change and start all over.  Thankfully, my mom taught me to be creative (I specifically remember an end table at our cabin that was an old wooden crate from the Grand Marais dump!) and reuse things, so the Prairie Parsonage can be redecorated over and over on a very minimal budget.

Unfortunately, I do not always have the skill to get things how I want them.  Painting I can do (although our little town has some awesome painters that are much better than me), but staining things is another story.

I recently bought some unfinished shelves for a wall in our dining room.  Buying them unfinished meant that they were a fraction of the cost of a finished shelf.  I set out to stain them.  After a few hours of inhaling fumes and the kids acting a little loopy, I was left with a sticky, drippy, unevenly coated shelving mess.

So, out to the garage they went to be painted black.  Thanks to a little tylenol in a teething baby, today I was given a few hours where she napped and I could paint.  A coat of black paint and the shelves turned out even better than I could have imagined.

She naps!

It was really a good analogy for what God can do in our lives.  The last few months have felt a bit messy and sticky in my life.  Yet, over and over, I have heard Jeremiah 29:11 playing in my mind. 

^" For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Finally, shelves that aren't a sticky mess!

At different times, different aspects of this verse would stand out: plans, hope, future.  I would spend hours rocking KJ and contemplating what exactly the Lord was trying to tell me. This, along with much prayer, eventually led me to quit my job with no future employment opportunities in sight.  Now, I am slowly starting to see why I was supposed to do this. 

So, even though I do not know if the mess of my career will turn into something beautiful like my shelves, I can rest assured that He has me in the palm of His hand.  It is sometimes easier to write this than to actually feel it, but I am learning that like love, trust is also a choice.  We choose to trust God, even when we don't feel like it.

Back to some shelves for a second coat of paint before a sweet little girl wakes up from her nap.  May you be reminded that He has plans for you, that He loves you and that He will give you a hope and a future.

Painting Helper!

The Large Prairie Parsonage wall soon to be graced with shelves and pictures of our cute kids!