While my second son, Peter and his wife Heather and four children were gone to Denver, my husband, Doyle and sister Beth invaded their home and did a make-over…..mostly kitchen, but it creeped into every room. Over the past year Heather and I had talked about painting her kitchen cabinets…but then she got pregnant, then it was summer, and then Irene was born. So, it didn’t get get done…..until the time came to take Edmund to the National Jewish Hospital in Denver for his skin problem. He has had severe eczema for the past year and it was miserable to watch him and doubly hard on the family as they tried to take care of him.. So the family left for two weeks and we painted cupboards, made shelves, painted those, painted walls and trim and baseboard. We dyed curtains and hung curtains, re-arranged cabinets, bought organizers for cupboards, cleaned the house from top to bottom so Edmund could have a clean start without two weeks of dust, washed all bedding (because again dust is so hard on him), found and painted a wood chest for their firewood, cleaned up the yard, and washed windows, hung blinds, hung lights and put in a shoe cabinet and hung hooks for coats and hats. We worked hard and had a lot of fun. We also had one day where several other people came and worked all day. How awesome to have good friends who gave of their time and energy to bless this family. Several of my friends were a bit nervous about us doing all of this. What would they think? Wouldn’t they be mad at us for doing this while they were gone? All I could think of was that I truly felt in my heart of hearts that this is what God wanted us to do. I felt so strongly about it I decided even if they didn’t like it, I would just beg their forgiveness at the end of it all! We saved everything we took down in case they wanted to put it back up (curtains, etc.). All in all though we didn’t do much different, we didn’t change their color palette, we stayed with what we knew they liked, black cupboards, bright walls, etc.
So, at the end, they came home and loved it all. The kids loved it too and they were the biggest surprise for me. Four year old Daniel kept running through the house when they got home saying…”it’s sooooo beautiful!”. And what fun they had finding the little treasures the “Teennie Weenies” had left everywhere.
The thing I learned through all of this is that if you think God wants you to do something…..DO IT!! Even if there are some naysayers (because there ALWAYS will be!)….Go…with what you think God is telling you to do. We don’t always accept gifts from each other and from God with graciousness either. But how wonderful it is when we do! And I am so thankful that Pete and Heather accepted what we did with such a humble and gracious spirit. Being gracious is truly a lesson we all need to learn!