There May Be Seasons of Holes In The Wall And Stubby Stumps Before The Vision Blooms

The hole in a wall

My husband is very sporting about having to manpower my ideas. First, he’s just that kind of guy. Second, he trusts my vision, even when he doesn’t quite see it himself.

 Now that’s not to say I don’t have to initiate things before he gets the picture—like the time he came home from a trip and found a pile of broken sheetrock in the driveway, the remains of a wall I had wanted to remove.                                                   

 Usually the steps to getting things done around the house go something like this:                                

·         First I initiate a negative observation—“Those fat, squatty, overgrown azaleas make this place look like a tired old grandma house.”  I let this idea simmer a few days.                                                                                                                                                                   

·          Then I supply the positive vision—“I can just see some different shaped shrubs, lacey ones, different heights mixed in. Freshen the place up.”  At this point Bob agrees but is not moved to action.                                                                                                                                                                                                         

·         So a  few days later I give him a visual—He comes home to find several of the previously bushy azaleas now reduced to naked little clumps, waving their stumpy stubs from a mound in the ground. Just waiting for Bob to remove them.                                                             

That’s how we work together—I see the possibilities beyond the hole in a wall and Bob sees how to do it. But I know I wouldn’t have the nerve to knock out walls or denude the front yard if I wasn’t sure my husband trusted me and would come alongside and fix my mistakes or supply the muscle when I couldn’t. If I wasn’t sure he wouldn’t berate or blame me if I screwed up.

Sometimes I’ve wondered what the Lord thought about some of my decisions, not that He would berate or blame, but would He really work “all things together for good?” Would He shelve me and leave me to my own devices? Or would He find a way to show me He was still The God of My Mistakes?

So many times along the way, I have received encouragement from the life of King David to trust the Lord with the outcome of a situation, whether deserved, mistaken, or unjust.  One example that comes to mind is when David was fleeing his son Absalom.

Shimei, a man from Saul’s family, takes advantage of David’s weakened condition, runs alongside the entourage and hurls stones and epithets at David. Can you imagine the wrath of the Secret Service if someone did that to the President? Some of David’s men wanted to take Shimei out, but David restrained them saying, “Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today” (2 Samuel 16: 11,12).

Oh that we would live with such confidence in God and His vision for us.

During the next few weeks I am going to talk about some of the mistakes I worried would cost me big time with God, and what He showed me.

There may be seasons of holes in the wall and stubby stumps before the vision blooms, but nothing trumps a contrite heart. 

The vision for the hole in the wall

This I call to mind and therefore I have hope—“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness”(Lamentations 3:20-23).

I invite you also to share any stories from your own life that testify to the God of My Mistakes.m And thank you for coming by.

Marcia

 (PS Sorry for format problems--still can't post using Firefox, only with IE)