God Speaks Today…Literally, Part Two

For Part One, Click Here
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My husband and I have been plodding along, looking at houses since spring. It’s been a long road that’s morphed and mutated in multiple directions.

It started out as a plan to move to a gorgeous area of town where we would be closer to everything we do, add some feaures we both wanted in a home and have enough land to eventually buy Rebekah a horse. We fell in love with many homes in that area–and even made an offer on one–but ultimately decided against it because of the outrageous taxes. The increase in taxes was like a second mortgage. Not kidding even a little bit. It was just too hard to justify.

Then we looked at houses just outside of town: lots of land but low taxes. And did I mention, lots of land? Yes, land means maintenance. Since I’m barely keeping the inside of my house habitable right now, and since Jon works a lot of hours, we both wondered if we could negotiate lawn fairies into the contract to handle the outside for free. Plus, living on the outskirts of town puts us further away from everything we do outside of home. And that’s all we need is MORE time in the car, cuz let’s face it, we just love us some long commutes. Nix that plan.

Then we started looking at existing homes in surrounding neighborhoods. We highly value the community of our neighborhood and realized we didn’t want to lose that. We found lots of lovely homes…one in particular we all loved. Except for the front of it…and the lot. See, we currently have the best backyard known to suburbia. It’s the perfect size, it has mature trees, it’s flat and it backs up to woods. And bonus, all my neighbors love my kids and don’t mind a bit that they run and play throughout their yards. It’s like living at the park.

Wait a minute…Why are we moving again? If we added a sun room, made the dining room into an office and updated the kitchen, we’d be golden. But rumor has it that building on an existing home is a major life disruption and crazy expensive…Never mind.

Maybe if we just buy a lot and build on it, we could build the house we love, get exactly what we want and have more time to sell our house.

Seriously…we’re running out of options here, are we not?

So, over the last few weeks, we met with the builder, chose a lot and a lovely house plan. We were in the process of scheduling the next appointment with the builder–the one where we customize the floor plan and start laying out a time line–the one where we have to start signing contracts and writing checks. I was on my way to shoot some pictures of a few exterior combinations I liked to take with me to the meeting, when I got that old familiar feeling.

The yuck in my gut. The red light. The pause.

Since I’m consecrating these 40 days to hear God more clearly, I knew immediately it was God speaking. If there is one message I know clearly from God is the yuck/red light/pause message. Now, admittedly, I’ve been all over the map on this decision (ahem), and it wasn’t the first time I wondered if we should move. But it was the first time I felt the yuck.

As I sought God throughout the day, I asked Him to help me understand what He was trying to say. I heard questions coming to my mind like, “Are you sure this is a wise place to funnel your resources: your time, your money and your emotions? How does this move fit in with the purpose I have for your family? Do you know what My purpose is? When was the last time you and Jon discussed my purposes and goals for the family?”

Wow. How does it all fit? Does it fit at all? What if God wants us to use our financial resources elsewhere and we have them all locked up in the house? And what ever happened to wanting to have a place we could keep a horse?

I asked God to please talk to Jon about this. If it was God, I wanted my husband to hear it, too.

When Jon got home, I told him all about the yuck, the pause and the questions. And guess what? Turns out he had prayed that morning about the house and God told him the exact same thing.

Go figure.

So we unanimously agreed to take God’s advice and pause. For the duration of my fast, we have agreed to cease looking at or talking about new houses or floor plans. Instead, we are seeking God for His plan, purpose and goals for our little family. And if the new house fits in that, wonderful.

And if it doesn’t…wonderful.
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For Part Three, Click Here