Doug and I are finishing up a project we started in April of 2017: redoing the whole main floor of our home! We have learned a LOT about God, ourselves, and each other, as well as how to do DIY projects! We have accomplished things that I never thought we would ever do.
The last room we are redoing is the kitchen.
My biggest part of the kitchen remodel was painting the kitchen cabinets. As I was removing the items from the cabinets I was amazed at how dirty and scuffed up the cabinets were. After putting on a new coat of paint they hardly looked the same. Then we added new hardware and they looked like brand new cabinets. As nice as the cabinets look now, I know that they will get dirty and scuffed up again and need washing and touch up paint.
It makes me think of my own life and how I want to be clean and fresh on both the inside and out. I want everything to look and be perfect. Over the past few weeks there have been a couple of quotes that Jack has said that have really stood out to me.
First, "we will be broken people until we see Jesus".
I think I literally sighed out loud when he said that. I don't want to be broken, it is hard being broken and harder to admit my brokenness. But just like the cabinets before I started on them, I thought they looked pretty good until I took a deeper look.
Am I willing to be broken and allow the Lord to meet me in my brokenness? Am I willing to be honest with myself and with the Lord about how broken I am?
Second, "reconciliation isn't perfection".
As a perfectionist I want everything to be perfect after the reconciliation. But again, like the cabinets, they will need to be cleaned and touched up again and again.
Am I willing to forgive over and over? Seven times seventy? Am I willing to forgive Doug again today for the same thing he did yesterday? Am I willing to forgive myself when I've done the same thing today that I did yesterday?
I'm looking forward to being back in Genesis this coming Sunday. Jack will be preaching out of chapter 14. May we all have open hearts to hear what God is speaking to us in our brokenness.
Ministering together,
Janelle