I think the Lord has been giving me lessons in patience lately. And no, I didn’t pray for patience!
Anyone who knows me, will be able to tell you that I am not patient by nature. I want things done and I want them done yesterday. Living in even a small remodel project puts me on edge and even over the edge at times….
Lessons in Patience #1: Things may not always go as planned.
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed a few photos popping up on our recent bathroom remodel. What was supposed to be a simple project for our long Labor Day weekend turned into a plumbing nightmare.
Not plumbing in the bathroom. No. The main plumping coming into our house has had a mini leak for several months. Every time I cleaned the litter box, I dried the floor. Annoying but liveable. Nothing that HAD to be done right away.
However, on Saturday morning after I stripped everything out of our bathroom on Friday night; Jason and Grandpa decide that little leak should be fixed first. Well, I guess it wasn’t an easy fix? Our water was off all day on Saturday. We showered at Grandpa’s that night and brought jugs of water home with us for Sunday.
Lessons in Patience #2 Things don’t go as planned a lot of the time.
On Monday they are at it bright and early again. Since the soldering of copper pipes wasn’t working (they were installed too close to the wall and the paint on the wall was burning off when they would try to solder), they pulled all the copper out and went back the the store to buy pvc. Ugh. Finally Monday night we get the water back on. Yay! But guess what? There is still a slow leak (different spot). 🙁
Deciding to put a towel under the 1-drip-a-minute leak, they plan on working (finally!) on the bathroom Tuesday after work.
Lessons in Patience #3 If something can go wrong, it will.
Tuesday was going great for me! Sure I didn’t have my bathroom back together, but I had running water and could finally put things back in order in the kitchen. All is well and I sit at the computer to take a break. Imagine my horror when I hear the sound of wildly spraying water!
Running like a mad woman, I shut off the water, and start frantically sweeping/mopping up the massive amounts of water that ran out of a piece of cracked PVC, so it doesn’t go under the wall into our bedroom. Poor Jason then got a call from a wildly crying, hysterical woman begging him to come home. So, instead of finally getting our bathroom done, we had to spend yet another day working on those pipes. You know, there comes a point where it occurs to you that calling a plumber would’ve been cheaper. 🙁
Lessons in Patience #4 It’s ok to just let things go.
We decided to ignore the blow out. It was on the outside pipes and we could shut it off, while still having water to the house. That night we worked some more on the bathroom, but 3 hours isn’t a lot of time.
Wednesday, I got home from cleaning and cleaned my house. Yes, we are in the middle of a construction mess, but just having clean floors was amazing. My bathroom was still in shambles, but the Lord was still with me, and I began to feel shame over my attitude.
Lessons in Patience #5 There are always blessings, even in the middle of a storm. (or construction mess!)
Here it is, Friday morning, and our bathroom is still not completed. Our house is still a dusty mess, but guess, what? I’m ok. You see, we have a house! There are those who do not.
I’m annoyed that Gramps and Jason thought that plumbing HAD to be done that weekend, but guess what? I have a husband, and a grandpa who is still able enough to help and advise on projects like this.
We only have one bathroom and it was torn up, but guess what? The toilet stayed in place! (as well as the door lol) We couldn’t shower here, but Grandpa’s let us shower there and the wonderful people I nanny for is letting me use their shower this morning.
We are spending more than I wanted to, but guess what? God has ensured we have the funds, even though we didn’t want to use them.
Lesson Learned? I would love to say I have learned my lesson. That next time things don’t go my way, I will sit back and look for my blessings. I wish I could say that. But I am human, and have to relearn a lot.
So I will thank God for blessings past, and praise him for what is to come. I will humbly plead forgiveness and rest in the grace that is offered to me a sinner.
Amen Sister!
Beautifully written and so true! Thanks for your honesty. I pray too I can Look first to the Lord through my “storms” and speak peace in the hearts around me. God bless you and know we care and will be glad for you when “this too shall pass”, ….. till the next time! TRUST!
Tell me, Kendra, is it wrong for me to be kinda, sorta, happy it isn’t just us that these things happen to?! Actually, SO many things like this have happened to us, that I began to have a new attitude of “Let’s just be calm, because of course something is going to go wrong”. But then, remarkably, things started to take a turn for the better, hmmm…Actually, I think one of the reasons why things started to turn out better, is because I started to think, ahead of time, of all the things that were going to go wrong, and not only accept them, but plan for them, lol!
I think you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t find relief in knowing that you aren’t the only one who runs head first into brick walls at times 🙂
We know stuff will go wrong, but usually plan on the wrong things going wrong. If that makes any sense at all 🙂
I too am thankful for having a toilet (even tho 11 of us are sharing it!)!!!
Hi Kendra! Just wanted to let you know that you’re not alone. My husband and I bought a home 13 years ago and as we speak my bedroom is spread out in my kitchen, living room and den. Oh the joy! 🙂 We are putting up a new ceiling and floor in our room, not to mention that the walls were gutted out too. We have that old horse hair plaster (we have a very old home) and are replacing it one room at a time with sheetrock. What a mess! It’s so hard to do renovations to your home when you are already living in it but when it’s done you feel so good. And just to let you know, you’ll probably be ever so thankful one day that you did fix that little leak because -(and yes, I am speaking from experience here…) little leaks have a nasty way of becoming gigantic ones -sometimes over night. :^/ But that’s my story. =) Anyway, it does get better and you will learn a lot! God Bless! =)
Ugh! I’m sure water spraying everywhere in the middle of the night would be a nightmare! (except you cannot wake up from it!)
The house we moved to when I was 10 had that horse hair plaster. I remember it being such a mess. But I don’t think they tore it all out. Instead they
cut out the moldy crumbly stuff and patched it. Now that I think about it…. I really wonder why. LOL
This is so true! I am not a patient person either and whenever things don’t go as planned I tend to get panicky and very grumpy (attitude, etc.) You think I would have learned my lesson by now but as you said as humans we all usually need to relearn things
i know exactly what you mean i get grumpy to my little ones when the house is a mess and suddenly i do a little prayer to calm me down