Home On Time

Have you ever stood talking to a friend when your child comes up and tugs on you? “Mom, let’s go.” And there you are talking or listening to a friend and needing to finish what you’re saying or finish listening, because we all know it’s important. So you turn to your child, say, “In a moment, please,” and turn back to the person.

That minute turns into two, then ten, and eventually twenty and all the while your child is whimpering and whining and sometimes stomping.

I hate it when I feel like I don’t have enough time to devote to important things and the people in my life. We expect in the summer to be on the run, vacations are filled with family trips and taking to the road.

When the colors of fall come, it’s a sign for us to slow down.  A time to reconnect. A time to reach out to our tribes, join new ones, and discover what this season of our lives holds for us.

Last year at this time, my family and I were homeless. We made a decision to sell our home and relocate. I felt convicted to remove my family from the street we’d lived on for almost nine years. After two years of heartfelt prayer, we sold our home. Then, we were unable to find a home in our desired location.  Soon we found ourselves living in a borrowed house. What a blessing it was to have a place to go, but at the time I didn’t feel like it. The house we lived in during those nine months had a lot of flaws, but it provided a roof over our heads.

In that time, we learned to live without many of the conveniences and items we’d packed away in storage. It brought us together as a family in more ways than one can describe, and it challenged us to choose between desires and what mattered most in our lives.

Today, we’re now settled in our new house. The home we’d been praying for. The home God chose for us. For during those nine months we searched everywhere for a home only to face many barriers. We were out bid, offer accepted before we could make one, or rejected offers due to multiple bids. Then we found it. A house that couldn’t be for anyone but us. It had our last name initial on the door. It was everything I’d been searching for, a little dated, but fixable. There was not going to be any negotiations. We offered full price and never doubted the house offer would get rejected. It was our house. It had to be. And we waited. Waited. Until the owner rejected our offer.

Heartbroken. Can you say devastated? Crushed? Oh yes. All of those. The house went off the market, unsold, the owner didn’t want to sell it anymore.

My husband said to me, “That’s not the house God has for us.”

Like one of my children, I grew impatient. I wanted to go home. And for months, upon months, I prayed to do just that. But after we didn’t get the perfect house, I went to my family and I asked for forgiveness. That’s right—forgiveness. I felt so desperate to relocate our family to a more family friendly and quieter neighborhood and I failed.

I’d failed because I instead of the perfect house, we’d ended up living in a borrowed house, with all our belongs stored away, and what was supposed to be better ended up putting us in worse situation then intended.

Only then did my family surprise me. Instead of the anger I expected from them, they showed me great love, acceptance, and the one thing I’d run out of—patience.

Two days after we moved in our current home, that perfect house came back on the market. Again, my husband reminded me, “That’s not where God wanted us to be.”

But it didn’t stop me from wondering, should we have waited?  Did I pick the right house? I’d given up, couldn’t even believe the next house we made an offer on had gotten accepted. It wasn’t where I’d thought we would be. It wasn’t the kind of house I’d pictured. But through all the months of waiting, searching, and praying, this is the house we’d been blessed with.

Life isn’t fair. I remind my children all the time. [bctt tweet=”We don’t always get what we want, when we want it. But we get what we need when we need it. ” username=”susanlower”]

As I stand out on my front porch, watching my children ride their bikes and play with neighboring kids, it was worth it. For that moment, and all the moments to come in this place.

The wait, the journey which brought us to this time, and this season filled with of gratitude and respect for the one who loves us always is the greatest blessing of all.

Susan Lower

Susan Lower is a thrifty, creative, adventurous gal who loves black raspberry ice cream and chocolate. She's married to an awesome guy who calls her beautiful and has three great kids who call her Mom. She serves on the board for the St. Davids Christian Writers' Association as their conference director and when she's not writing, you'll find her with a good book, taking a family adventure, or in her craft room at www.susanlower.com.

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook - Google Plus