Buried Treasure

             I love our house. I referred to it as our Promised Land, but right now it doesn't feel like it because we are in the middle of negotiating after inspections. We may have a septic issue that wasn't found on our inspection ten months ago, which is frustrating and tempts me to wail, "Gloom, despair and agony on me..."  We will know more after our "second opinion" tomorrow. (I debated with titling this post "House of Dreams or House of Poo?")
             There have been plenty of challenges in my life, and I have loved watching God work through them...I believe this too will be one of them. A couple years ago, my hubby left one easy, unfulfilling job for a challenging one with a company just starting up. Initially, there was a substantial pay-cut to deal with (pay would have increased as the business grew). To make a long story short, that job didn't work out...but my hubby ended up being offered an outstanding job just six months after leaving the unfulfilling one. One of the things that came out of that time with learning to live with less was my love for making jewelry. I got creative instead of bemoaning the fact that our income had changed and my resources for giving gifts were different. Although I apologize to the owner of my first creation (a dear teaching friend of mine), I eventually got better. I began looking at jewelry people were wearing and copied what I liked. Below is a picture of my favorite peice that I made last spring.
             I'm reading a book called "Respectable Sins", and one line really speaks to me at this time. It says, "If I complain about the difficult circumstances in my life, I impugn the sovereignty and goodness of God and tempt my listener to do the same." Although,  I wish sometimes life was easier...I'm learning that the bigger the challenge,  the greater the opportunity for God to come through.
          Have you heard the story about two twin boys? One was the eternal optimist and the other was constantly negative. Scientist conducted an experiment and placed the pessimistic twin in a room filled with cars, trains, and toys to boggle the mind. They placed the optimist in a room of manure. Twenty minutes later, they checked in on them. The negative boy was crying amid the room of toys because none of the cars were his favorite color. However, the optimist was covered in manure and happily digging around in it.  When the scientists conducting the experiment questioned why he was so happy, he exclaimed, "With all this poop, there's bound to be a horse in here somewhere! "
          I'm not sure why we are going through this septic issue, but I'm going to keep digging till I find my horse. God is big enough to bring something good out of this stinky issue, and He is big enough to bring something good out of yours too.