Four Rooms with Potential
When we were looking for a house Marianne and I had lofty and grand
expectations. You know, that "dream house" each of us can describe right down to
the door knobs.
Reality, however, kept those dreams in check.
I can clearly remember saying that we needed to look at houses and see the
potential in them.
Thus, the four room house we have come to call home became our reality.
Yes, there was a kitchen and a living room downstairs and two bedrooms and a
bath upstairs.
The entire house was about 900 square feet.
Doesn't sound like much potential does it?
It took a long time but in recent years we added an addition to the home. It is
the largest open space in the house doubling the downstairs and includes a high
cathedral-like ceiling.
The ever existing potential and dream would be to add a smaller two story
addition to the front of the house, expanding the master bedroom (which now is
only about 10x15) and adding a small sitting area to the dining room.
As the old joke goes, "Our bedroom is so small I need to go outside to change my
mind."
The one thing we have always had was hope and the ability to see potential.
I believe that is what Marianne saw in me. She's still waiting.
But isn't that what life is all about?
The problem many people have is that they want what they want and they want it
now.
Yes, as believers we are told: Matthew 7:7-8 (ESV) 7 "Ask, and it will be given
to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For
everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who
knocks it will be opened."
Now taking that literally makes God appear to be an ATM machine or that rich
relative we all hoped would appear in our lives.
The truth is God wants us to dream big, aim high and reach beyond our grasp. But
like a good and proper parent, you won't get everything you ask for. A good
parent will give you what's good for you in measures that won't harm you and in
the proper time and place.
We, in turn, may be disappointed, but we continue to trust and believe in that
parent. In the long run we realize, that what was given to us, as what was held
back from us, was for our own good.
Although our "dream" home we longed for was perfect in every way, the home we
have grown into and expanded was made perfect as we learned to live with and
appreciate all we had.
I believe that God sees in you right now the potential to grow into the life you
dream of no matter how young or old you are.
You are constantly under construction, God is the contractor and you the
sub-contractor. He supplies the materials and you the labor.
"Ask and you shall receive" is a truth we need to better understand. The beauty
of which evolves into a partnership, like marriage, a relationship like parent
and child and the reality of seeing "Four rooms with potential."
Bob Perks
2believe@comcast.net