Perseverance

The story of Nehemiah has been running through my mind all day. I love this story and realized just how much it relates to our lives this year. We have been dealing with exactly what Nehemiah dealt with resistance and many obstacles in our way as we proceed with projects we must tackle on our home. Every time we turn around there is something in the way hampering our progress. It has been extremely discouraging. I'm a person that loves order and organization but in the middle of working on our home we have had to live in a less than ideal situation. Some days it seems like we will never manage to complete what needs to be done. Sometimes we have to sit and wait, think and rest. Our progress is halted at times but eventually, we pick up our tools again and proceed. Just like Nehemiah we too continue trudging on. Little by little, we continue to attack the projects we must do. Discouragement takes us down sometimes; there are no cheerleaders to cheer us on. We have learned to rest when we need to and take a break when things get too tough and challenging. At times this means weeks of closing the door and waiting until we have the strength and courage to proceed. But the important thing is that we are continuing just as Nehemiah did one little step at a time. What we want is for it to happen quickly but we are realizing that what we want and what we can do are two different things. We are in the situation Nehemiah was in and it will just take us time. Our job is not to give up. We must trust that God will empower us to complete the tasks we have to do. Most of the flooring was finally laid in my new bedroom. After weeks of working our way through one difficulty after another, thinking through how to complete the task, taking a long break and rethinking what we had done. We restarted the task again, ripping up what we did and redoing it. Now we are over half way through with the project. Hopefully soon it will be finished. Our determination has finally paid off. We are slowly making headway. There are still many things to complete but we will have to continue on one step at a time just like Nehemiah. In time we will complete the projects. We just have to keep pressing on and remember not to give up. God has a plan. He will continue to lead and guide us.

May we all continue pressing on. We must not lose heart. No matter what is in our way on this earth we must continue doing the work God created us to do.