Bret Legg 
Well, we’re in our new house! Not everything is put away yet, but it’s livable and we can get both cars in the garage! So, I’ll close this series with one final lesson I’ve learned from this experience. What I’ve learned about marriage from buying a house is that it’s easy to let routine take over your marriage.
While on vacation this week, I read a short blog post by Allison Vesterfelt entitled “The Difference Between an Ordinary Life and an Extraordinary One.” It was a great reminder that you don’t have to do extraordinary things to have an extraordinary life. It’s actually the little things that fuel an extraordinary life. Since she said it so well…and since I’m on vacation…I encourage you to go straight to the source and read it for yourself by clicking the link above. It could change your outlook on life.
On another level…
in Scripture, Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Jesus also told a story about a person who was faithful in a few things and consequently was made ruler over many things and told to enter into the joy of the Lord. Maybe, just maybe, the two go together.
Leave a comment and let me know what you thought about Allison Vesterfelt’s article.
Copyright © 2015 Bret Legg
Finally! All our stuff was packed. It was all on a truck, or jammed into a car. So I went back into the house and took a final look around.
I walked through the empty rooms that had been home for twenty years. The walls were dotted with nail holes and tattooed with marks here and there. There were hash marks on a door frame that chronicled a child’s life one inch at a time. It all told a story, like primitive paintings on a cave wall. The rooms were empty, but they were full of memories.
“You have to be patient.” I didn’t like hearing that advice as a child and I’m not a big fan of it as an adult. It’s difficult to be patient. If you don’t believe it, check out the video The Marshmallow Experiment.
We’re one week away from moving into a new house. We still have some packing to do, but we’re so close it’s hard to be patient. There are things we want to do, but we can’t because we’re not there yet. We have to be patient.
What I’ve learned about marriage from buying a house is there are times in marriage when you know what you want, but you’re not there yet and you have to be patient. For example…
Too many choices. Ever felt that way? You turn on your TV and there’s over 300 channels. You go to the grocery store and there are at least ten different types of anything you’re looking for. And if you go out to eat, there are more choices than you could possibly, get around to trying.
We typically think the mores choices we have, the better off we are. But that’s not necessarily true.
“You’re not done yet.” This is what I’ve been telling myself lately. We’re very close to moving into a new home, and I’m sure some of you are tired of hearing this continuing saga. I’m with you. I’m tired of living it. Still, this experience keeps teaching me things about about marriage…especially this week.
Let me just cut to the chase here. One of the things I’ve learned from this house buying experience is that if you want to get from the house you have to the house you want…it’s going to cost you.
Certainly there’s the cost of the new mortgage, but there’s also expenses like fees, repairs to your current house, appliances for the new house, and moving expenses. Then there’s the amount of time and energy you have to spend. All this can easily cause you to loose site of the ultimate goal…to get to a better place.
Everybody has a different level of pain tolerance. Some have a high tolerance for pain. They have the ability to tolerate pain that others might find intolerable.
Still, other people have a very low tolerance for pain. Even a small pain feels big to them. They don’t wait to see if the headache will get worse. They take something at the first sign of a headache to make it go away. The same can be said about discouragement.
Have you ever had a total stranger hand you a list of things they believed needed to be changed about something really personal to you? That’s what a home inspection list is.
I niavely thought it would be smooth sailing after the contract was signed. After all, we had a buyer who wanted the house enough to sign a contract. “We’re there!” I thought. But there was more for me to learn.
