Whew! I am writing this now in the middle of baking FIVE CAKES. Well, kind of. As if I don’t have enough on my plate I took on the challenge of making Liam’s birthday cake. And I don’t mean a box cake in a cake pan covered in canned icing and littered with sprinkles. Oh no. I am talking a three layer cake with homemade icing and marshmallow fondant. I’m currently wondering if I was on drugs when I made that decision….
But more of that story later.
Let me just say that moving is not easy. And not the ‘packing boxes and putting them in a truck’ kind of moving. The ‘sell your house’ kind of moving. This process is making the packing look like cake (just not a three layer with fondant cake!).
Okay, I may be exaggerating a bit. We have not had to do much on our part at all. And I think THAT is what makes it hard on me. Being dependent on someone else to do what you need done…get rid of your house. It drives me nuts. If I want something done I want to be able to do everything I can to make it happen. I do not have the sit around and wait type of personality. And it all becomes harder when one-third of your family is 2,000 miles away.
To recap, we received an offer on our house and for a price we were happy with. And, bonus, we negotiated in some of the furniture. And, yes, I say bonus because I would then have the opportunity to redecorate our living room completely and it helped to get rid of some of the furniture we will have no room for. We were elated to make this deal and saw it as prayers being answered.
Once the negotiating was complete, the next headache was WHEN for Liam and I to move out. Do we wait for the official paperwork to be signed (the brain’s way of doing things) or do we chance it and head on out to be with Matt (the heart’s way of doing things). If we decide to move out before the closing date, do we move out after Liam and I’s birthdays? But I want to take Liam to the circus. Wait until after then? Despite specific questions, we’d pretty much let the heart win out and had settled on a roundabout date to fly out.
So on Friday, my sweet co-teacher and our classes threw me a surprise going-away breakfast. It was only hours later that I received the phone call that our buyers had backed out. Here I am hours after recieving sweet gifts and cards from my students and now we have no one to buy our house. We had an idea of a back-up couple who were very interested…but they bought a house just days before. And there was the potential of a ‘back-up back-up’ but they seemed to be wary of the cost of maintaining a pool.
So, we are back to square one. House on the internet. Keeping the house looking like a model home at all times. Praying for showings and another offer.
Some tears were shed and I sat wondering “why?” Don’t most of us wonder “why” when things happen? Especially Christians. Why give me an answered prayer and then take it away? And then I believe I received my answer on Sunday at church. The sermon was on prayer. Which seems like such a simple topic if you’ve been in church all your life but it really hit home on Sunday.
I’ll be real with you for a moment. I pray. I pray with my head on the pillow and I’m pretty sure I fall asleep in the middle of some. And when do I pray the most? When I want something. And that’s just what I’ve been doing. I have no doubt that after we accepted the offer on the house my prayers became a lot more scarce. I had my prayers of thanks but from then on? A lot of silence.
I had promised myself, and God, that when Matt was in Montana I would be much better about my quiet time. That just seemed like a good starting point. And, three months later, I successfully did eight devotionals. EIGHT! How terrible!
Sunday’s sermon is one I have honestly heard many times. And the bones of it were truly nothing new. But it hit home. I am considering this God’s wake up call to me. Not to use Him as a genie but as a friend. And no one likes a friend who only talks to them when they need stuff!
So I challenge you. Talk to Him. And preferably not at 10:30 at night, underneath three warm layers, lying on your nice feather pillow. Trust me. That does not work!
