The Blessing of Contentment and a Peek into our School Room

Last time I mentioned how I had been praying for a move but God actually answered my prayers for a more thankful and contented heart.

Well I wanted share a little bit about how my perspective has changed and the blessing that has come as a result. Now, we live in a modest house. Three bedrooms, 2 baths for a family of six means everyone is doubling up. We don’t have a huge yard for the kids to run around in. It’s small but also low maintenance.

In the past I have sometimes feel self-conscious about having people over. We have been to homes that are much larger and nicer and I tended to play the comparison game. On any given day there are piles of things everywhere, toys on the floor, and crayon on the walls. People don’t need to see that, right?

This summer the Lord put it in my heart to lead a small group study in our home. Every Tuesday morning we would meet in my kitchen and do a book study. Sweet sisters with their little ones in tow. The kiddos would hang out in the living room playing or watching a movie while the moms chatted in the kitchen. It was awesome.

I personally don’t have a super gift of hospitality like some I know, but every week I made sure there was fresh coffee, fruit and some pastries for everyone. And we were all blessed. Friendships that had started as acquaintances blossomed and the Lord used us to speak words of life and encouragement to one another. All because I was able to be content with what we have and be willing to share it. And no one seemed to mind the piles or the crayon art on the walls and I would have missed out on our time together if I focused on what we lacked rather than on what we could share.

Well, one of the great things about our house is that there’s this extra “sunroom”. We call it the “rec room”. It was addition to the house and serves as our older boys hang out room and now also our school room. It is a great space.

But until a few weeks ago we had this big clunky hot tub in the middle of the room. The room had basically been built around it. When we first moved in several years ago we thought it was pretty awesome but the novelty eventually wore off. We used it maybe a handful of times and then turned it off and so it just sat there, empty for three years. And it took up a lot of space.

Once I started thinking about homeschooling, I really thought about using the space, because I couldn’t really see trying to set up a study area in any of the other rooms. I mentioned getting rid of the hot tub to my husband but he wasn’t keen on the idea. He thought it would be too challenging and expensive to get it removed.

So in my spirit of contentment and not wanting to push it or cause conflict with my hubby, I decided that I would make do and just work around the hot tub. I had already been using the top as space for my sewing so I would just try to do my best to fit the kid’s school space in there somewhere.

Well very soon after, something changed in my husband and he decided that we should get rid of the hot tub. And before I knew it we were having someone come and demolish it, and then had a friend come and help us re-tile the space on the floor where it had been.

And it went from this

Storage for school work AND mommy’s sewing things

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