Building a Life

"By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures."
 -- Proverbs 24: 3,4

A relative of mine is so excited this Christmas season because this will be the first Christmas that she and her family will be in their new home. Now this home is not your ordinary run of the mill track home. This is a amazingly huge, custom built, with a lake in the back yard, and a quarter mile driveway from the road to the garages type of place. I have yet to see the finished product, but have had several opportunities to visit while it was under construction. What never ceased to amaze me was the attention to detail that my relative had for every nook and cranny. Everything from paint colors to the multiple types of stone and woods was carefully selected, with no expense spared. The best craftsmen were brought in to fashion a dream that started on paper to the rooms that can now be called home.

I believe that what makes this home so cherished is that it was truly a labor of love that lasted for more than four years. Plans were drawn, scratched, and redrawn. Schedules had to be organized and deadlines had to be met. One decision easily created a domino effect that could be drawn out for several weeks if not months. But the end product is exactly what my relative and her husband had wanted on the outset.

As I read this Proverb this morning, I couldn't help but make a parallel to my own life. I certainly don't have such magnificent living quarters, but I am attempting to design and live out a life that God wants for me. To accomplish this, my mentor has encouraged me to write out vision statements and action steps. This process has clarified my dreams and priorities. Each vision statement I have written represents hours of prayer and study and a hope that it aligns with God's plans for my life. The ultimate goal is that when I come to the end of my earthly life, I can look back and see God's handprint on each day and be confident that I experienced all of His abundant goodness.

But like my relative who experienced delays in the construction of her home, I too have experienced delays and set backs. While I accept that I have the rest of my life to be living out the fruition of these visions I have cast for myself, I sometimes become discouraged in the lack of even the smallest forward progress. And it is at these junctures that I make a decision: do I walk away and never realize the dream or do I press on knowing that if my vision honors God, God will honor my vision?

I must confess that it is sometimes tempting to throw in the towel. But when I stop and think about the alternative - of living a mediocre life - it no longer becomes an option. After all, I have time and tears invested into this; so surely, some day, I will be able to recognize the smallest step forward and know that God moved me.

I don't know where you might be with your thoughts of your future and the plans that God has for you. It can be scary dreaming big dreams for your life with God, especially when you allow Him to be responsible rather than attempting to take those dreams into your own hands. But His word promises us that through wisdom, understanding, and knowledge this life will be filled with rare and beautiful treasures. I am choosing to believe this today. Will you believe it too?