Delayed Gratification

Well, I am writing to you now from the spacious desk in our new house. It has been a very long time since I last posted, this is largely due to my stubborn determination not to write again until we HAD actually moved. It was a very drawn out process with quite a few ups and downs and a few hard lessons along the way, but I will skip all that and just say - Yes! We have a new home! It is quite luxurious to have a spare bedroom, and suddenly more cupboard space than I am quite sure what to do with.

God has truly blessed us, not only with a home that more than provides for all our current needs - but also we are now very much in walking distance to Shane's school. It is literally 100m away and I can see the school parking lot from our balcony. For a one car family this is one awesome perk.

I think waiting for something, and working your way towards it creates an appreciation that you could never have otherwise. We lived in a very small home for 5 years, it certainly met all our needs but we were limited in what we could do and who we could host at our house. We waited. We waited til the timing was right and we felt led (or pushed!) to make a change, and even then there was a lot of waiting. Looking and wondering and asking and waiting. It is a very uncomfortable time for the soul. How we struggle with the unknowns in our life. How we can begin to doubt in God's provision. How marvellous to see him pull through and reveal his character and his goodness once again as we deep down knew he would. I am grateful for the difficulty, the pain of the unknown and all that it shows me in myself. Nothing like uncomfortable circumstances to show us what we are really made of.

In the scheme of things this was a very mild level of discomfort, it would probably be insulting to call it 'pain', but it was certainly a trial of sorts. Especially for me. I think the upheaval of house and home is far more unsettling to the wife than the husband. Especially when there are children involved. Talking to my mum about it, whilst in the midst of the process she had the image of a cat who has its kittens moved and how fretful the cat gets and how it will start picking up its kittens and carting them around trying to find a peaceful new home. We mums do get fretful over things, I hate to admit to being a fretter, to forgetting to trust in my heavenly father for doubting he had everything under control- its obvious that he did. He also allowed me just enough unknown to reveal the areas in me where I still doubt him, areas where I was sure my trust was rock solid- it isn't!

Through all of this though, it helps me be all the more appreciative and grateful for our current circumstances. To have a home again. We are quite settled in now. It is lovely to be able to spread out a bit. I am especially loving the freedom to be able to host people comfortably here, we have had more dinner guests in the past two weeks than we probably had in the last year. It is the beginning of a new season for us- we have been enlarged and are excited and how we can bless others with the blessing given to us.

Sigh. Sometimes I think my life is one great lesson in patience. I really am quite an impatient person it would be up there as one of my greatest weaknesses, I am sure. God seems to have a five pronged strategy in helping make me into a patient creature.

1) marry Shane (to clarify, this is not derogatory to Shane, we just operate differently...i like to rush...he doesn't)

2) have children

3) live in a hot humid climate

4) long waits in between seeing family

5) disciple young people

I see what He is up to.

Well, I seem to be coming to the end of this blog without having really tied in the fact that I wanted to somehow connect my delayed gratification with our house to our recent going-to-bed-without-getting-up success we had with Esther (by using a sticker chart and a tea set reward)....But somehow it didn't seem to happen...hmmm maybe next time. Anyway, the point of what I really wanted to get at was;

Delayed Gratificiation- so good for us all, at any age.