Remodeled...

As a belated birthday present, my brother surprised me by remodeling my bathroom while I was vacationing in Mexico. This is not the first time that my brother thought he was Ty Pennington and took it upon himself to change something that I thought of as fundamentally "mine" without my permission...a few Thanksgivings ago, he bought me a bed and while I was gone, he removed my old bed and set up a new bedroom for me. Maybe I just need to not go on vacation...yeah, that's not going to happen! While I greatly appreciate the love that motivated my brother's actions, I really wish he'd discussed colors and my vision for my bathroom with me before he took it upon himself to remove the layers of wallpaper and linoleum that clogged the walls and floors of the old bathroom. I hate to sound ungrateful, but Brillant White is so NOT the color I would have painted my bathroom walls. Do you know how bright that color is at 5:00 in the morning? I was thinking more of a peach or sage or blue (I hadn't decided yet) theme, but now have adjusted to a cream, chocolate, beach kind of theme in the bathroom - which is nice, but not my vision for the bathroom. I am sure that I will grow to love it - I did with my bed...eventually...

BUT...

How many times does God need to "remodel" us to make us more in line with His vision for us? Granted, He doesn't necessarily do it by means of a sneak attack, but there have been times when He has molded and rearranged some stuff in my life in ways that I thought made no sense or were not in line with my vision for myself. I mean, PRAISE GOD He did because His way is always best, but the very human side of me often goes through the whole "But I didn't want to do it THAT way" temper tantrum phase before I calm down and submit to the perfectness of His Will. My favorite example of this was a resolution I made a few years ago to "practice the art of patience." In my mind, I was asking for patience when it came to speaking my mind - you know, open mouth, insert foot syndrome - I had it bad (some would say, I still suffer from it, but if that is true, I am a LOT better now than I was a few years ago). Well, God's plan to teach me patience took a whole 'nother direction - I got sick and the doctors didn't seem to know what was causing the myriad of health problems. Can I tell you - when the doctors are just "practicing" on you with no answers in sight, you learn patience! It wasn't the way I thought I needed to be molded, but it turned out for the best.

I don't know what "remodeling" you might need in your life, but my advice: don't fight it. Surrender to God's will and I promise, it will all turn out right.

Be blessed.