A Time to Decorate

And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure. ~ Isa 33:6

The idea of "treasure" is different for everyone. What is a treasure to me may be junk to you and vice versa. Treasure doesn't need to be valuable it just needs to mean something to you. To most people, Ben and I don't possess any treasure, if we're talking about things. Our house is not filled with expensive things and we don't wear designer clothing nor do we drive fancy cars. If you ask us, we'll tell you we're blessed beyond belief. And the best thing about is that the LORD provided it all for us...some of you he used to meet our needs. I love how our God works. I love that even the little, seemingly unimportant things, matter to him.

Sometimes I look around our house and I am overwhelmed. Not because I think I have such nice things. It's because just about every item in my house I can name a person who gave that item to us. It AMAZES me how God has provided. When we first bought the house I just remember thinking, "How are we ever going to fill this place". That is where I was wrong. WE weren't going to fill it, HE was. Ben had been wanting a piano for years. He had finally saved up enough money to buy the one he'd been wanting. It was a Yamaha something-or-other, full keyboard, portable. I remember going to music store after music store looking at pianos just thinking what a waste of time this was because I knew he wouldn't buy one. Even after he had the money saved he STILL didn't buy it. Then one day, not long after moving into the house, he is looking on ebay and finds a baby grande piano for sale. $300 and in MA. He prayed about it, bid, never expecting to win it at such a low price and WON! He was so happy and we just thanked God for providing it. Our grande is not like the shiny new ones you imagine. It's wood, old and not shiny at all...but it's perfectly rustic for our house and sounds great! That moment was such a lesson to me. God provides if we are willing to wait on him to provide and usually it's better than we expected. I can go on and on and on. A few months after moving into the house I became a Southern Living at Home consultant because I loved the product and figured I would try it out. I was able to decorate our home for basically free. The Lord allowed it to be a profitable venture for me just long enough for me to make our home pretty. Seriously it goes on and on. I won't bore you except to explain what promted this blog. My aunt and uncle are selling thier home in ME. They had a lot of things they were not taking with them and needed to get rid of. These things were by no means junk and they could have easily tried to sell this stuff. Instead, because they have always been so generous, they offered my sisters and I first dibs. Ben and I had been wanting outdoor seating for years now and were tempted every fall to buy a set on sale. We always hemmed and hawed over them but in the end decided that since we'd managed perfectly fine all summer without one we could do without it. Well wouldn't you know that my aunt and uncle were giving away more outdoor seating then we ever thought of buying. I now own a wrougt iron set, a wicker set and a beautiful wood picnic table that has benches and chairs. I've also been wanting a deacons bench ever since we moved in but just couldn't justify spending the money-I'm like that. There is not a new bureau in the house! All have been hand-me-downs because I just feel it's a lot of money we don't NEED to spend. And the Lord provides everytime. My aunt gave me a decons bench with matching hutch and it's much nicer than anything I would have been willing to spend money on.

I don't say this to brag. Rather to encourage you to WAIT on the Lord. Just because we want something doesn't mean we should run out and buy it. It's ok to have used things in your house. We figure, why spend tons of money on nice furniture that the kids will beat up over time. Why not spend less on ourselves and have more to give to others. Sure I would love to drive a nice vehicle that at least has A/C (that's right folk-no A/C!) but the story behind our suburban is another good one and it's what the God provided us. If it's what God wanted us to have then it's good enough for me. It's so easy to get carried away with having the newest of everything...don't even get me started on cell phones, haha! I love the verse above because it's a reminder to us that GOD is the real treasure. Our trust in Him, the hope we have in Him and the promise of eternal life-that is the true treasure. I love decorating and I love seeing how God provides for us without us having to spend tons of money to do it. But more importantly I love that through my decorating and as I look around I am reminded daily of God's goodness and the people he has used to bless our family.