Every homeowner knows that following the joy of closing on your new beautiful home awaits the biggest responsibility of home repairs and maintenance. I had three major repairs that hit spontaneously in one week of our home of nearly eight years, and I learned a major lesson in gratitude during my series of weekly repairs of doing less complaining. It can be a natural response to many us to complain when things don’t go accordingly to our plan, but if we take the time to venture deeper beyond the surface of our circumstances we can find purpose offering us an open heart of thanksgiving.
Do all things without grumbling or questioning. Phillipans 2 : 14
My oldest daughter was only two years old when we purchased our home. Three out four of my children had their first steps taken in our starter home. Our home was a major part of our city’s revitalization project to improve the downtown area. It’s was new, had beautiful features, sparkling with fresh paint, and soft fluffy carpet. The wear and tear of age, weathering, and four toddlers being raised in a home will open it to a variety of damages over the years. I begin to feel like owning a home was a big burden rather than a blessing especially in transitioning to being a new single mom having to take care of it all by myself. I was ready to hit the road jack in just starting over dreading every moment left staying inside what I felt wasn’t my home anymore, but was now simply ” the house.”
My new yard man knocked off the already jagged spicket causing a near flood heading towards the street. The running water wouldn’t stop no matter what we tried. I reached out to call every neighborhood handyman I knew, but no one was available. I had to accept after my hair was drenched in water from trying to stop the running faucet outside to call a plumber. The refrigerator begin to leak water earlier that week, but by this time my bootleg method of simply laying a towel down at the bottom wasn’t soaking it up. The water puddle was slowing growing to the point in reaching the middle of the kitchen starting to buckle our hardwood floors. I thought nothing else could make the week living in the house worse, but then the downstairs heating and air suddenly went shot!What was a girl to do? Why was all this happening in one week? Did I make the big man upstairs mad?
I decided to not cry out to God in a woe is me prayer of feeling like a target of his wrath. I fought the feelings of being bitter in being left to maintain our home. I knew how excited and blessed I was to be a homeowner at the very beginning. I knew how growing up we would oftentimes move from place to place as renters with our single mom doing the best she could with a small budget. I would dream of a home like ours when I was a little girl, and I was sitting here now like a spoiled child pouting on what were repairs that would eventually come anyway. I prayed in giving God thanks for being able to have a home. I shifted my focus from being upset of having to call a plumber after hours to praise that someone was available to fix the leaking water, and I was grateful to have the funds available to pay them for their work. I discovered I had some “handywoman” skills and I found the leak from the fridge, and I was able to fix it temporarily to stop the leak just in time for it to be fixed by a professional. Heck, I was so happy I actually fixed the doorbell that had been broken for as nearly long as we’ve lived in our home. I looked at every area of my life where I wasted precious time and energy complaining with no real results. I decided to continue my journey of being realistic in matters of challenging circumstances, but to choose to be prayerfully proactive in direction with no complaining.
Be blessed beautiful people! Find something in each day no matter what to be grateful for.
Purpose Filled Mommy with Minimarie 