“I Could Have Given You Less” by: Raising Samuels
My husband
and I made the decision this past weekend, to take our house off the
market. After almost 6 months and about
25 different couples coming to view our house, we received no offers. It was priced below market value and we even
lowered it to the point, where it was almost not worth selling. We ended up switching our sons’ room and the
office around and painted both rooms and our upstairs hallway, and restaged
both rooms to show better. Thankfully,
we did this with neutral colors but also to our liking just in case we didn’t
sell.
We couldn’t
figure out why we hadn’t gotten a single offer.
Our friends and family were stumped too.
We had done a lot of work to the house and it looked gorgeous.
We live in
a townhouse a little under 1700 square feet with 2 ½ bathrooms and 3 bedrooms
just to paint you a picture. We have a
one car garage and we are one of eight units in a building. We really don’t have what you would call a
yard. My husband and I thought it would
be great to have a bigger house with a big yard. We weren’t appreciating what we did have.
After about
three months of praying, I realized I was praying wrong. I had been asking God to please sell our
house so we could get something bigger.
God likes us to ask Him questions but only when it is according to His
will. He doesn’t want to be told what to
do. He knows us better than we do
ourselves. I started to pray for God’s
will on my house. And after 3 months of
feeling like there was no answer, I got one: “I could have given you less.”
We live in
a society where “Keeping up with the Jones” is at its peak. Everyone wants the latest iPhone or a bigger
house or a nicer car. We want the best
of everything. Is it wrong to want nice
things? Is it wrong to want nicer things
for our children? No, it’s not but at what price is that worth? Is it worth the price of your joy or your
children’s joy?
I tell you
this because this is the point my husband and I got to. We were being short tempered with our sons
and each other because we were trying to clean the house for a showing, which
would be our last showing. I finally
looked at him and said, “Is this really worth it?”
Look at the
wonderful things going on in your life.
Are your children healthy and safe?
Do you have a place to call home and love, laughter, joy, and food in
it? Do you have family and friends who
love and care about you? We all go
through times where we think we have it bad.
We had some
friends who came over this past weekend who had never seen our house before
come in with a great perspective. They
were impressed that we weren’t responsible for the outside of our home or the
lawn maintenance because it’s part of our HOA.
We have a pool at the front of our neighborhood that I walk to everyday
with my sons when it’s warm enough to go swimming, that we are not responsible
for cleaning. I live in a gated
community with a Neighborhood Watch and safe sidewalks that my sons, dog, and I
walk on for exercise everyday.
From the description I gave you before of my
home, let me paint you a better picture of what I do have. I have a house that is filled with the Lord,
faith, friendship, family, love, and joy.
I do not want for anything and I am grateful for what I do have not only
in my home, but my life. After all the
renovations we did in our house, it looks and feels amazing and we realized we
didn’t want to move after all.
Sometimes
we need a different perspective on things.
What is going on in your life that you are struggling with or that is
taking the joy from you? If you have
been praying on it and haven’t received an answer yet, are you praying for what
you want or what God wants? Only God
knows what the future holds. Maybe you
are going through this bad time in your life but He will find a way to bring
good out of it. Just remember to be
grateful for all that you do have because He could have given you less.
Blessings,
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