Things were getting a little sticky for our family in the fall of 2004. I had quit my job to stay home full-time with our first child and we were living in a house we could no longer afford without my income. We were living in Wisconsin at the time and knew that it was time for us to move on. Some things had transpired in our church which showed us that God no longer wanted us there. Our primary goal at the time was to pay off our school debt, and how could we do that when we were saddled with a home that was above our means? So, we put our house up for sale and planned a move to Minnesota, where my family lives.
Months passed with no serious offers on our house. We were still making it financially, but in a matter of another month or so we knew we could not make our mortgage payment. Things had deteriorated at our church and we needed to leave by March 29th, the day a major change was going to take place in our church. We wondered, should we lower the asking price for our home? That seemed counter-productive as our purpose for buying the house was to be able to apply the equity towards our debt. We prayed and struggled, and yes, doubted God’s will.
Finally, one day at the end of February, just as my husband was heading off to work, we noticed a car parked outside of our house. Soon a realtor was at our door with a young couple to whom he wanted to show our house. The house was a mess! I thought for sure the showing would come to nothing. Previously when the house was being shown I would spend a lot of time cleaning and then light a few candles to make the place as homey as possible. On this day I hadn’t so much as done the dishes or vacuumed my floors. We let them in and they looked around for about twenty minutes and left. About an hour later my realtor called, “I need to rub my eyes to make sure I’m seeing this correctly,” she said. “I have an offer here for your home for…” I was shocked. The couple had offered us $1000 MORE than we were asking for our house. They had no contingencies and wanted no inspections. What they did want was an early closing date. We closed on our house on March 28th.
During that time, God really tested our faith. We thought that He wanted us to move, but when our house didn’t sell immediately, we questioned God’s will. God reminded me that He is always faithful to His children, even when we struggle with believing. We don’t always know the “why’s” in life. What is important is that we seek God and obey Him step-by-step. It is good to remember what Solomon said of God in Lamentations chapter 3, “Thy mercies are new every morning, great is Thy faithfulness”!
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