My husband and I bought an old farmhouse that was built in 1929. I fell in love with this house. It sits on a beautiful piece of land with a creek that flows through it. The driveway is lined with trees that make my heart smile every time I look at them. Our plan was to restore and remodel this house.
Friends would come over and it was funny to see their reaction. They couldn’t see it. To them it looked like a house built almost 100 years ago that had not been taken care of, and to their defense they were correct. But I could just see it. I pictured us raising our family in that house.
As we moved forward in the process problems started to pop up, as you could imagine. But we had our hearts set on that house so we would try to push through to make it work, until it just wouldn’t. We had professionals tell us that it would be best to tear it down and start over. We didn’t want to hear it. It wasn’t just a house they were talking about, it was our dream.
I decided to fast and pray over this decision. At the end of it, my husband and I had peace that tearing it down was the right thing to do. Peace doesn’t always mean happiness and joy. I had peace, but I was still sad that the house had to go.
At the end of that fast the Lord showed me something more real than tearing down that house. He showed me dreams and plans in my heart that I needed to tear down. He reminded me in of these verses:
Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. Isaiah 4:19
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
My mind knew these verses well, but my heart hadn’t yet taken them as promises and believed them.
So here I find myself watching my dream house come down, all while watching the walls of my heart come down and open up to what the Lord has for me. Somehow I find extreme kindness from the Lord and beauty in all of it. How kind of Him to give me an external example of what is happening internally for me. How kind of Him to allow me to watch the old go away and get to see the beauty and excitement of the new that is coming.
Today if you feel like the Lord is asking you to tear down your house, if He is asking you to let down those walls and surrender those dreams to Him, my prayer for us is that we let Him in and allow Him to do what only He can do in our lives. I pray that we can open up our eyes and hearts to see the beauty of restoration. The beauty of letting go of the old and rebuilding the new.
I am a girl with big dreams, a blog & a heart to encourage women in their journey through this gift of life we have been given by the greatest Gift Giver there is! I love to read, write, drink coffee and spend time with the hubby & puppies! I would love to connect with you on my website ashleymcclain.org or my
Facebook page facebook.com/ashleymcclain.org
and hear all about your journey too!
Ashley Lauren McClain
