I love our church.
Currently, our Sunday message series is titled: Myth Busters.
The premise is that there are myths held up by Christians as Truth. Based on misrepresentations and misunderstandings of some Bible verses ~ or on contemporary thinking.
So, "train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it." This is not a promise, but rather a principle. We raise our children in the way they should go, and when they are old, they make their own decisions and we should continue to pray that those decisions would be Godly.
"Love is a feeling." Yes. But too many of us are saying, "I just don't love him anymore." Or "I never loved him." Or "I'm not happy." So we justify leaving. Love is more than a feeling. Love is a decision.
The toughest one for me: I have a plan for you, plans to prosper, not to harm you. Yet there is no blueprint. That God would say: turn right here. Turn around and go back here. This is the right school. This is the right man. This is the right house.
Not everything happens because God ordains it. Some things just happen.
Does God cause some things to happen? Yes.
But He gave us free will and because of that, there is no pre-determined path. Except that He plans to prosper us to Heaven.
Wrap your mind around that one.
Bad things can happen to you. Just because.
But Ultimately, God's desire is that we be reunited with Him in Heaven. So He uses even the bad things that happen to us to bring us there.
Now, the Bible does say that God works for the good of those who love Him, those who have been called according to His purpose. This verse brought me through many, many days with Pookie. That God would make it good. That there would be a lesson in it, a reason to go through it.
And so here we are. Our house sold in 9 days. And then, for very little apparent reason, our buyers backed out. And today we went to sign the contract on the new build - all the decisions have been made. We picked out everything --- from which rooms will have porcelain light sockets to what color the cabinets and the floor will be. But when the builder showed up with the plot plans and showed us how our house would be sitting in the back 80% of our lot with no backyard - literally, the north corner of our house sat in the north corner of the yard - Hubby cleared his throat and said, "I thought the house would be sitting up here," pointing to the front half of our lot. We clamored into vehicles and went to see the stakes in the ground with our own eyes. We returned to the show room to cut-outs of various home models and moved them this way and that on the plot plan. We returned to vehicles to see other lots. Returned to catty-wompis this cut-out floor plan to this plot and that plot.
This was supposed to be our putting the $$ down, digging the hole for foundation tomorrow meeting. Instead, I stood in the middle of a muddy lot with my face in my hands, and tears streaming down my face.
We took our house off the market tonite.
And I am in shock.
I will be honest with you - that this whole process has been wrought with reservations for me. But I kept going back to how the house-to-be was a dream house for us. I even began to dream of the kids helping me clean up dinner dishes in that kitchen...There was so much right with it - neighborhood, schools (shucks, I emailed the new principal at 9PM last night - she returned my email by 9:15...and again later last night, and ANOTHER one early this morning...), that after nearly 5 years of searching and disappointment, this one was meant to be.
And then it's not.
So what's the take-away?
No, God doesn't 'toy' with us. And He may have had nothing to do with any of this. (Except maybe the buyers backing out...I mean, seriously??) But what am I supposed to learn from this?
And how do I tell my kids - "oh, gee guys. We aren't moving after-all...at least ~ for now." Blech!
All I know is that He does know the 'plans' He has for us. Plans to prosper and not to harm us. Plans to give us a hope and a future. And I continue to believe that, although he does not choose the flavor of the bread of life He has given us ~ we mix in our own fruits and nuts, if you know what I am saying ~ He does stir the pot. And, again, Ultimately, He bakes it and uses us for good. As we seek Him.
And so I do.
