Day 8 of 31: Painting Bedrooms & Seeing Beyond

My friend Elyse came over to see my house last night. She is expecting her first child, so I was excited to see her baby bump.  She will be a great mommy! :)

So thankful for these two. They have been faithful friends to me since elementary school!

            Yesterday was a painting day.  I woke up, ate a bowl of cereal, then my dad told me that he needed me to take him to the auto shop to pick up his car.  I just thought I was dropping him off at our small-town auto shop, so I didn’t bother to change out of my sweatpants (a pair that I have had and have worn regularly to bed since I was 14). It was chilly and rainy out, so I grabbed a jacket—my favorite farmer flannel jacket that is actually my dad’s, but a few years ago I swiped it and now keep it in my closet.  It’s so warm and comfortable, but I have been told by a number of my immediate family members that it isn’t exactly flattering on me. Still it’s my favorite thing to wear around the farm in the fall, but I very, very rarely wear it in public.

            We needed to buy paint rollers, so we stopped in at the Dollar General to see if they had any, but no luck.  I then dropped my dad off to get his car and headed to Walmart in my 12-year-old sweatpants and oversized flannel jacket.  Guess I am one of those people.

            As I left Walmart, I got a text from my friend Keena that she and her husband could come help paint. Awesome. When I delivered the paint rollers to my house, Dad, Mom, my sister Rachel, and my aunt Doris were already there and had started painting.  Keena and Chris arrived soon, and room by room, we finished the 2^nd coat of paint. 

Chris & Dad painting my laundry room

            I think it was when I was about an hour into painting the trim around the baseboards that I started thinking two things:

            1. I should take a Sabbath from blogging today. (Since I had blogged 7 days in a row. Lol J)

            2. These are the bedrooms where I hope to provide a place for foster children to feel safe and cared for. (See my story about this in “Week 3: Four Bedrooms.”)

            Mom and Keena were painting with me in one bedroom. Mom shared about her friend who is fostering a little boy they hope to adopt.  Keena shared about her daughter and son-in-law who adopted two little children this year out of foster care.  They shared about children who have had so many challenges, but once they have been in a loving home, they feel more secure and are able to say more words and learn to use silverware when they eat and trust that their caregivers will give them food and drink every day. 

            And it’s a bit overwhelming for me to think about actually doing this.  But in a conversation with friends a few weeks ago, I shared about the concerns of me doing this and told them, “I didn’t say I wanted to do this; I said that God told me to do this.”  That’s the difference between backing down or plowing ahead. Of course, I want to care for children and extend God’s love to them, but that’s not the only thing that is driving me.  My faith in a big God who knows what He is doing and who has saved me from my sin—my desire to follow Him wherever He leads me is what is pulling me forward. (See my post “Week 16: Fearing, Yet Pursuing Foster Care.”)

Keena & Mom painting a bedroom closet

           

            My brother Dave lent me his book, The Supernatural Ways of Royalty: Discovering Your Rights and Privileges of Being a Son or Daughter of God.  In this book, Kris Vallotton writes, “May God grant to us the insight to see beyond the outward struggles of people’s lives and speak to the treasure that lies within them.”[1] The words see beyond caught my attention because when I started my blog, I titled it “Seeing the Unseen,” and God keeps showing me more ways to do that.  As I think about foster children who will come into my home, I’m praying that God will help me to see beyond their outward struggles. I now have the desire to ask God to give me specific words to each child—words that are a message from God specific to the individual children so they may learn that God knows them, God sees them, God loves them, and God has unique destinies for them. 

            Kris Vallotton also writes, “God desires our homes to be like palaces where our children are called, trained and equipped to walk in their prophetic destinies.  I don’t mean that our houses have to be expensive, beautiful, or even ours, but they need to be places that remind us of our prophetic destiny and cultivate that destiny in and through us.”[2] Would it be too ridiculous for me to ask God to make my home like that? If I ask God to give me insight to share with a child about his or her unique purpose and destiny, do you think He will reveal that to me? Do you think He is just waiting for someone to speak truth into a child’s life so that child will know that the God in heaven cares?

            The truth is that I am just one of those people who wears oversized farmer flannel jackets to Walmart. But what if God helps me to see beyond? What if—in your homes, in your relationships, in your unique purpose—God helps you to see beyond? #seeingtheunseen

Me & my brother Dave. Dave has been teaching me more about #seeingtheunseen!

Keena and I have been in the same bible study for about 3 years. She is such a fun and giving person! :)

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[1] Vallotton, Kris. (2006).  The Supernatural Ways of Royalty: Discovering Your Rights and Privileges of Being a Son or Daughter of God.  Shippensburg, PA:  Destiny Images Publishers, Inc.

[2] Vallotton, Kris. (2006).  The Supernatural Ways of Royalty: Discovering Your Rights and Privileges of Being a Son or Daughter of God.  Shippensburg, PA:  Destiny Images Publishers, Inc.