The Impatient House Seller

I'm discovering that selling our house isn't easy. Not that I thought it would be a snap, but I figured if God was leading it would all just fall in place and happen rather easily and peacefully. Hmph. (That's my mystified shrugging of the shoulders.)

First, we cleaned like crazy people. We were obsessed. Like the President or Queen or both were coming to dinner. Like our lives depended on it. We put furniture in the garage and our floors were literally clean enough to eat off of. It was exhausting. The photographs were taken and turned out lovely. In fact, they really make our house look, well, like someone else lives here.

About a minute after the photographs were taken, we all sighed and the house basically let out her gut and the dust began to accumulate again. Then we got busy making the necessary repairs before our first open house. Replacing columns on the front porch, replacing the ceiling in our living room, painting the porch, cleaning up the landscaping, pressure washing the basement floors, cleaning out the sewer line (thank you , Mr. Plumber for going the extra mile--literally!) My poor husband has been working around the clock--sometimes through the night--to get things in order. Now, we have to clean the house yet again for the open house this Sunday. Oh, and did I mention we are leaving for our vacation this Friday as well?

I'm confirming my suspicions that I am an incredibly impatient person at heart. I want to know when the house will sell, for how much, where we are moving, what color the grass will be in that yard, whether or not we can raise chickens, whether or not I need to save all my extra curtains, how big the closets are...can you tell I'm a detail person?! But, worrying and being anxious is sin and sin gets in the way of seeing all that God is doing. As a reminder to myself (and maybe to encourage someone else in the process!), here is a list of some of the things I've seen God doing:

--Although it has been exhausting work, we've been able to do it! Every tool and supply we've needed has been found either in our garage or been lent to us by a family member.
--Our family has been AMAZING spending lots of their own time and money traveling to our house to help us complete the projects.
--God has supplied all the extra money we've needed to carry on with our projects. We haven't gone hungry or had the electricity turned off:) We've even been able to share some of our abundance with others!
--Charlie and I have been able to study Proverbs together as we have been praying through our decision to sell this house. It's been good to make time to study together again.
--We have a wonderful realtor, Jane, who is fast becoming a friend.
--We're still going to be able to have a nice family vacation this summer.
--Every time we have felt overwhelmed or discouraged, a friend or brother or sister in Christ has come alongside us to encourage us and help us continue.
--Our kids are resilient.

Thanks, Lord, for being with us in all this. Help us to be faithful and to have complete faith in You and what You are doing...even when and especially when we can't see. In Jesus' Name, Amen.