My House Is Not Perfect

Here’s what I love: this house!!! 

Oh. My. Goodness!  Are you so sick of hearing about this new house of mine?  Well, here’s one more lesson God showed me inside the walls of our new abode.

I picked out nearly every item in this house.  I envisioned it and now, here it is!  I seriously marvel every time I walk in the door.  Here are a few of my favorite things:

I have a mud room.  A mud room!  This is something I’ve been wanting since I was 22 years old and first discovered a Pottery Barn catalog.  Even before I had kids, the thought of a bench, a place for shoes, and hooks for coats and bags made me giddy with organizational delight. 

Dark floors and white trim—this is another steal from pages of various magazines.  I just love how fresh and bright my house is, but the dark floors are striking and glamorous. 

White kitchen!!!  You know this has been a dream of mine.  White subway tiles, white quartz countertops, swirly gorgeous gray and white granite island,,,it’s all so happy and bright! 

The master bath is another treat.  I love the marble counter tops in all my bathrooms.  The master shower is roomy with beautiful custom tile.  And I have a giant free-standing bath tub with a glorious chandelier hanging above it.  Even as I type this, it sounds ridiculously indulgent. 

I feel overwhelmingly spoiled by all of this new house stuff.  I am amazed and humbled by every square inch.

And then, this happens:

I walk into any room and see the flaws.

A nail pop here, a small crack there.  A paint blob, a rough patch.  Plus, there are still boxes everywhere! 

I also see what we are lacking.

A storage solution in the bonus room, something to put the TV on (currently, it resides on Bill’s desk with the Wii and other electronics near by on a little shelf unit meant for a bathroom.  It’s not classy, but it works!)  We probably “need” a coffee table, baskets for the mud room, a mat for outside the front door, a filing cabinet, bins for the girl’s closets, WINDOW COVERINGS (that are not made of paper), a 4^th bar stool, chairs for the game table, furniture for the screened porch etc. ETC.

The list of what we still “need” seems endless.  Need is rather a strong word—since we have food, clothes, and shelter, I dare say we don’t NEED anything really.  And yet, isn’t it peculiar that in this gorgeous new house we still feel that we are lacking things?

My house is not perfect.

Even if I bought every single one of the items listed above, there would still be the tiny mistakes, the miniscule cracks, the dirty fingerprints on the wall by the stairs, the dust on our lovely dark floors…

Life is not perfect.

Even if we get everything we think we want, there will still be wrinkles, freckles, hiccups, mishaps, fender-benders, hurtful comments lingering like smudges on our brains, and flaws fluttering through our hearts. 

Our houses, our jobs, our surroundings, our loved ones, our experiences will never be perfect this side of heaven.  Our eyes will always see the bad, the flaws, the problems with everything.  But, rather than wallowing in dissatisfaction or lamenting our circumstances, perhaps we should focus on thanking for the good.  The ghastly parts are redeemed when God uses them to build character in us or point us to the only Perfect One. 

Laura Story says it best in her song Blessings:

What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life

Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy…

I am deeply grateful and insanely excited about our new home, but I am mindful that even this gift will never satisfy.  Instead, I look to the Giver of all good things.  His strength, His Spirit, His Person fill me and protect me.  He speaks to the depth of who I am and whispers the truth of eternity to my needy heart.