What Are You Building? 11/14/2020

 Good Morning,

The sun is very bright now and the morning air is crisp. I am blessed to have a hot cup of Door County Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Coffee steaming in the cup next to me. It is time to write and share my thoughts.

In 1993 we started the process of building a house on our property that we had purchased the year before. The process took 7 months to complete. We were hoping for 4-5 months from start to completion but a severe winter with many major snow and ice storms slowed down the process. There was a fire in the shell of the building caused by two kids who were up to mischief and one of them was injured trying to get away. Of course we were sued for not having the structure contained better, even though they were trespassing. Perfect example of justice gone backwards. 

Rene, our daughter Kristy and I removed 7 snow storms from the inside of the house and I was thinking that we should just sell the place once completed and call it a huge mistake. During the process we ran into every snag a home building adventure could run into. 

I however noticed that because of doing a lot of work ourselves to save money the three of us were spending more time together. We would work and clean up and many times Kristy who was in high school at the time would do her homework by lantern light. Tacos were eaten by the fireplace hearth. I can still see her sitting there studying without a fire. Every time I start that fireplace now I can see her there. 

I came to the conclusion that the building process was doing more than putting a roof over our heads.We were building a home. The building difficulties caused us to pray more. We were spending more time together and I recall spending four solid days staining and varnishing oak trim together. Soon we were looking forward to moving in. 

We prayed for God to make the construction process go smooth, but we didn't realize that He was busy building the family. We were taught to persevere and stick it out. We were taught to be patient. We were taught to value time spent together. We were taught to do good work that will last. We were taught to place great value on friends who had to move us twice because we needed to move out of our old house before the new on was finished. We were taught to never trust driving on loose gravel. That one is kind of a private joke that only Rene, Kristy and I will understand. 

We are still in the house we built and with no intentions of moving or building another, for now. Sitting back now and looking at the long drawn out process I can say this. 

Proverbs 3:4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 

Including families.

Marty