Struggling with loads of laundry, clutter in the kitchen and chaos in your life? Stress can easily steal our joy. Trish Berg reminds us to simplify the small stuff and find Joy in the Journey.
Pardon my dust, but I am in the middle of sanding and re-finishing my front porch. It started out as a small little task involving a little bit of sanding and re-staining, but has quickly turned into an enormous task. HGTV makes it all look too easy, and I am beginning to resent them for it.
We started out by having the kids take all of the porch furniture off the porch while Mike and I headed to General Rental to rent a floor sander. However, once we arrived, the knowledgeable salesperson recommended that we first power wash the porch to get all of the crud and some of the paint off first. Sounded logical, so we rented the power washer instead.
Once we got home, Mike worked one the power-washing while the kids and I began to hand-sand the 3 rocking chairs, porch swing and bench that reside on the porch, and I hoped it didnt turn into a competition like Brother vs Brother. We worked most of the day until we were exhausted. In the end we were left with a clean (and still painted) porch, some half-sanded porch furniture, a sore back, blistered fingers and cranky moods.
A few days later, we rented the power sander, ready to sand the porch down to the clean wood so we could stain it. We picked up the floor sander at four, and worked all evening only to have successfully sanded about a five foot area in four hours.
It appears that our porch paint is bonded to the wood with a substance that only Superman or the X Men could remove, and our rented power sander was no match. So we gave up and went to bed, again with sore backs, blistered fingers and cranky moods.
It was at that point my resentment was turning to hate for HGTV.
We decided to look online for the best way to remove stubborn paint from a wood deck, and it appears that we will need to use a paint stripper first and then re-rent the floor sander on the wood. Add about three more steps (and $100) to the process that has now lasted more than a week. We also discovered some rotted board that will need to be replaced in order to do the job right. Time to call the contractor.
So, pardon my dust as I continue to work on our little family project that should have taken a few days, and is now in week two, with no end in sight and no phone call from Curb Appeal or Yard Crashers to help.
I guess home improvement projects are a lot like heart improvement projects. What seems to be a little sanding around the edges sometimes turns into a complete (and much needed) renovation.
I know that I sure could sand off a little resentment in my heart, and my bitterness probably needs to be tossed out and replaced with grace and forgiveness.
The good news is that even though I cant call on Renovation Raiders to help me with my porch, I can call on the Lord to help with my renovation of the heart.
In the end, I know our porch will get done, and like my heart, to wont be perfect, but we will love it anyways.
The best news of all is that when it comes loving it or listing it, God will always choose to love my heart, even when I dont get the renovations right.
