Eye Sore

The house at the end of our street sat empty for a while and when the new tenants moved in they brought with them a new choice of paint for the front of their house and a hobby of fixing up cars.

For what seems like close to two years my neighbors yellow house has its front partially painted bright blue and he has been working on a car in his driveway.  If your my friend or family member I've probably complained to you about this.

One day they started to paint and then for some reason just stopped... mid board they just put the roller down. I cannot figure it out?  Maybe they ran out of paint? Maybe they decided they didn't like the color? BUT, they just quit, stopped working?? What happened? Who does that?

The car on the other hand, I see him working, I know he's out there, his hands are dirty, I hear the tools.  If its rainy or even a chance for rain he will put up a tent or hang a big blue tarp to protect the car.  We're talking BIG EYE SORE.

From what I can tell the car has never moved other than when it has been up on jacks so he can work on the belly of the car. I often drive by and ask myself, "What is he doing? How can there still be work to be done? Will he ever be finished? Forget bigger yards and better lots, THIS is why people should live in neighborhoods with HOA's..."

The outside of the house looks the same.  The outside of the car looks the same.  Maybe part of the car used to be gray or blue, I've stopped paying much attention. Honestly, what used to be kinda an eye sore is now more of a fixed fixture for the end of our street, a land mark. I actually tell people, "When you see the driveway with the cars that are being worked on or the yellow house that is partially painted blue you'll know thats our street."

Yesterday I was on a run, complaining again in my mind about this neighbor as a ran past and then....

Philippians 1:6 "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

1 Samuel 16:7  "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.  The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

These verses came to me as I was running past this house and its reminder of God working on me hit my heart in a different way.

-OUCH, Hmmm-

Do others notice the work God is doing in my life?  Am I an eye sore to be around when I've not allowed God to do the work that needs to be done?

Why do I care so much what others think of my outside appearance or how my family appears to others? I know that regardless of the events that transpire at the restaurant complete with spilled drinks, trips to the potty and at least one boy not being able to sit for the entire meal or the raised voices and slammed doors after a game that someone didn't win that we are a family that loves each other, that we are working at being great communicators and that we are being built up in HIM.

Colossians 2:6-7 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,   rooted and built up in him, strengthend in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

SO  I'm choosing something NEW...what used to be an eye sore and bother for me to drive by at the end of the street is now a prayer trigger for me to smile and THANK God as I'm leaving my house, probably a little later than I wanted to because someone had to finish the consequence for their actions, couldn't find their shoes,  forgot to get their water bottle or didn't remember to potty after I asked them to like 5 times before, that my little family is a work in progress and we are on this journey together and even if no one else can see the inside that I know that our little family dinner conversations, bed time bible stories, and a father that leads us well is truly a gift.

I pray that Chris and I would always see the "work" that we have to do as parents as a blessing, a gift worth protecting.  And that God would do a greater work in me regardless of what others think- honestly, they are thinking of themselves not me anyway.

I don't know whats going on on the inside of the neighbors house or what the engine of the car looks like but I am now thankful for the reminder that I am a continual work in progress until my Jesus returns to take me home.

Lord help me not to compare or to judge my neighbors

Matthew 7  "Don't judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  Why do you look at the sawdust (or grease) in you brothers eye and pay no attention to the plank in you own eye?  How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speak from your brothers eye."

Lord, work on me-even if that means you need me to start or stop doing something abruptly that others wouldn't understand. Soften me to see areas where I am at first bothered and want to look away in a new light.  Help me to know if my friends and neighbors need encouragement or help and give me the ability to always overflow with thankfulness.