Isn’t it funny how sometimes the thing you swore you’d never do becomes the exact thing you do? I would have sworn on my life, that Scott and I would never build a house. Seriously. I just didn’t think our fiery strong-willed individual selves could withstand that type of pressure cooker situation, together. But after seven years of house hunting, here we are.
We’re six months in to building a house and still alive (and mostly sane)!
It’s been more time-consuming than I ever dreamed possible. There are more details that go into deciding where every light bulb, plug and switch should go than one would ever even want to imagine. For this girl, who is generally a care-free, “fly by the seat of my pants” kind of person, there’s this annoying little dash of obsessive attention to detail that emerges at times when you least expect it. (Like every single time I get out the stick vacuum to clean up a few little crumbs and find myself an hour later, with all the vacuuming tools, sucking every last ounce of dust out of each and every corner of the room.) I’m quite sure there’s a lesson there on giving up control, but that’s a story for another day.
The point is, with this house, I’m simply incapable of letting anything slide.
If I’m going to put this much time and energy into building the house I plan to live in until the day I die, it’s going to have plugs in all the right places, by golly. So instead of sugar plums dancing in mama’s head during the holidays, I saw switches, plumbing fixtures and grout color samples. Then one day, Scott’s parents came to town to visit and we took them over to the house. We’ve been planning to have friends come pray over the house with us, to write verses, blessings, and prayers on the beams. So while they were there, we asked them to get it started. They wrote little notes, then we stood together and prayed in the entryway.
That moment shifted my perspective.
Of course, I’ve thought much about how I want this house to be a place that gives to others. I want it to have open arms that give hope, joy, laughter, peace, comfort, and a sense of community to all who enter. But standing in the entryway that day, I could see it a little bit more clearly. All of the hard work, inspecting, organizing, and stressing over the details, gained a new sense of purpose in that moment. It’s not that it’s easier, but I’m more clear about where we’re going and why we’re going there.
That makes all the difference.
As we enter into this new year, I hope this is a reminder for you to take some time to get a clear vision of where you are headed in 2018 and why it’s important to get there. Write it down, draw it out, glue it together . . . whatever it takes, to help you see it in a way that you can reference it throughout the year. It won’t make all your visions magically appear. You’ll still have to do the hard work to get there.
But it will give you a sense of passion and purpose when the going gets tough.
It will remind you of why you started. Even when there are surprises, disappointments and course corrections along the way, you’ll remember where you are headed and why you’re heading there.
Take a purposeful pause, to design your vision for the year.
Do it this week. Do it alone, or better yet, do it with the ones you love.
A clear vision makes all the difference.
to more love,
Crystal
P.S. We’ll be doing exactly that at our “Design Your Life” GNO next week. Nicole will lead us in designing our homes and our lives with meaning and intention. We’re creating vision boards together as a visual reminder of where we’re headed. We’ve done all the planning. Grab your girlfriends and come kick off your year with vision, together. Get your tickets here.
