Time to Renovate

We just did some improvements at our home. They are beautiful improvements and it increased our curb appeal, but they were done based on need.

Our home is a place to give us shelter in between “life”. It is a place to store items that may hold precious memories. It is a place to gather with friends and family to make memories or to relive them. But it is also a storage place for junk. We collect items because walls look bare with nothing on them. Closets and shelves look “sparse” so we fill them up. In my grandparent’s time, no one needed to rent a storage space to put their stuff in. If they needed it, they found room for it. If they didn’t have room, the assumption was that they didn’t truly “need” it and merely “wanted” it.

When did that all change?

I am reminded of an old joke that says: “The one who dies with the most toys, wins!” Really? When did we move into being so focused on “stuff”? If we have a car, we want another car or a better car. If we have a house, we want a bigger house. We are never satisfied. We are always trying to “one-up” someone or ourselves. I have a friend, when I share an accomplishment of one of my children with her, she compulsively has to “one-up” me with something her little one has accomplished.

Do not misunderstand, I am not saying we should not seek to improve ourselves or our surroundings. I am questioning the motives, the heart, of why. Please know that I am pointing the light of examination on myself as well.

I have to ask myself if I am taking care of the “curb appeal” of my life or am I concentrating on the foundation, the structure, the interior?

All the paint on the outside of the house will not hold it up when storms prevail. We need to tend to the foundation and the structure of our lives. For me, the foundation is my relationship with Jesus Christ and the structure is found in love – love of God’s Word, love of what He values and love of my family. I could not make it through a “good” day without these things, let alone a “storm of life”.

Time to renovate the inside!

LESSON: Never assume some THING can bring you happiness, love or life. It ONLY comes through some-One.