5-Minute Fridays – 5 Years Ago


Five years ago, our kitchen/family room/dining area/living room looked like this – CRAZY MAKING. And it looked like some version of this for almost a year. We cooked, ate and lived in the back bedroom and bathroom.


But that difficult year quickly disappeared from memory as the new space began to appear. Part of it shows in the picture below – bright, cheery colors, new appliances, new window seat, fun living and gathering space.


But the real joy of this space is perhaps more perfectly shown in this picture – celebrating our eldest grandson’s 19th birthday last year. The ‘joys’ of remodeling are nicely replaced with the true joys of family life.
Five years ago, the bigger of these two precious girls was a newborn (as was her equally fabulous male cousin). And the littlest one wasn’t even on the horizon. How quickly things change, how blessed we are in most of those changes.


But five years ago, we still had our son-in-law with us. Five years ago, we still had my youngest brother with us. Five years ago, my husband did not have prostate cancer. Five years ago, I had no major health issues. Five years ago, I was working as a pastor, a ministry I loved and was called into. Five years ago, life was different in some much-missed ways, too. Thankfully, during each of those 5 years – and every event in them, both large and small – God showed up. Not always in the way I might have imagined, not always in the way I would have chosen – but God showed up. So, overall – I stand at this end of those 5 years and say, “Thank you.” Thank you for presence, thank you for promise, thank you for lives – as well as houses! – remade.

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Comments

  1. This was a familiar post to me.. remodeling and life changes always seem to go together. I appreciated your last paragraph… looking back.. God granted strength and healing through all of life’s changes.
    Blessings,
    September

  2. Thankful for presence right along with you!!
    Blessings!
    LIB
    http://bit.ly/egasHP

  3. I’m here via Five Minute Friday. Thank you for sharing your heart (and great pics too!). I’m thankful for presence as well. . . .

  4. Oh what a great room – I’d think it was worth all the disarray. Especially when it allows for the gorgeous memories you’re making there!

  5. I, too, love how that room turned out.

    I feel the same looking back on hard things. I wouldn’t change it if I could because of what God did in it.

  6. Yes, disarray as a hard thing is easily met with thanksgiving when the results are fun and beautiful. Other hard things – like death and illness, a little tougher to do. Yet, even in those times, there are small beauties for which to give thanks. Sometimes I think I MIGHT change some of those hard things, if I had such powers – but thankfully, I do not. So, by God’s grace, I learn to live in and with them and learn what they have to teach.