Lesson in Patience

So there is this little thing called patience. It's one of the things I struggle with, on a daily basis. This statement might surprise most of you, but it's true. For the most part I have learned how to settle for what I have now and wait for opportunities to present themselves, because I believe that good things come to those who wait. It's not easy, especially when it comes to wanting to buy a house.

I have been casually looking at houses for a few months now to see what the market is like and what we can afford and what we want vs what we can afford. In our county it is really hard to find a nice house in a nice area for the amount of money we want to spend on a mortgage. I haven't been able to find anything just yet... Except for this one house I have been eyeing for a while now. It seems perfect, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, one car garage, fenced in yard, hardwood floors... The kitchen is a little on the small side, but I could live with that or potentially make it bigger or expand it into another room. And did I mention that it's only about 5 minutes walking distance from where we live now?

There are only a few things holding us back from jumping right in and buying it. First, it's $30,000 more (at this point) than we really want to spend on a house, right now. Second, the price goes down about every 2-3 weeks, so we are kind of waiting to see how low the price might go before they put it up for auction. Third, it's a possible short sale, which we are in no position to fund right now. And it's forclosed on, so there is no telling what kind of condition the house is actually in. With all of this in consideration, I'm still keeping my eye on it, but God is giving me a big dose of "be patient" right now and I don't like it, haha.

He even had someone tell me "be patient", in-directly, at church yesterday. The pastor was talking about debt and how society is always telling us that it's ok to be in debt and you need the latest and greatest things, even if you can't afford them. Wow, did that hit home...  Then he said to all the parents "Raise your hand if you've ever not gotten your children something they wanted" Lots of people raised their hands, us included. The point was that God will give you what you want if and when you are suppose to get it, we shouldn't go into debt to get it.

The whole thing about not getting your children something they really wanted reminded me of something we are going through with Elijah. All last year... and even to this day, every time he sees a skateboard at the store he asks to get it. -Every- -time-, it doesn't matter where or when. So every time I keep telling him no, you're too little. In reality it's because I know if he gets the skateboard, even if he could ride on it, he is not coordinated enough to play with it correctly and would most likely get seriously hurt. So to prevent him from pain and suffering and possible hospital visits in the near future, I said no. He wouldn't understand my reasoning if I explained all of that to him, so I left it at "You're too little".

Sounds a lot like God talking to me about the house... He's saying "No, it's not time yet" and still -every- -time- I think about getting a house I'm like, "Now God?". Nope. Like I tell Elijah, "patience is a virtue"... You would think after saying it enough I would take my own advice. Oh well, eventually I'll get a house, just like one day Elijah will be old enough to get a skateboard. It might take $1,000 more times for each of us to ask, but one day it will happen.

This was a pretty boring blog entry, but I thought I would share in case any of you are feeling the same way regarding different issues. I hope everyone has a great day!