I love that God has placed a few women in my life who seem to have a knack for turning junky old garage sale finds into beautiful pieces of furniture and decor that you’d pay hundreds for in some cutsie downtown furniture store! I am by no means great at doing this myself, but I do LOVE a good bargain and the process of transforming trash into treasure is one of the most rewarding feelings I know.

Although the time I have to do these little projects has become increasingly limited I have tackled a few this past few weeks!
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Found an outdoor bistro set last year at a garage sale, but the seats were in pretty bad shape. I finally got around to recovering them!

And this wonderfully huge dining set was a steal of a deal on Craigslist but the fabric has always clashed with the rest of our decor. So, I finally decided to tackle my first reupholstering job 🙂

My most recent project was completed last night after the girls went to bed ~ painting & distressing all these frames for my Family Photo Wall

Finally, I tackled the dreaded upstairs bathroom a couple weeks ago.

This isn’t a “faux crackling glaze” ~ it’s just REALLY old! 🙂

And since my mind never stops I am continually pondering, analyzing, praying, and considering things… this is a blessing and a curse.
While scrubbing this bathroom’s dirty, stained, disgusting tile for 6.5 hours (yes, I really did keep track) I began to ponder the joy that I’ve found in remodeling, refinishing, and reviving this old house of ours.
See, the Lord blessed us with the opportunity to build two brand new homes in Alaska and we enjoyed perfectly level walls, coordinating doors & trim, and shiny new floors. But then the Lord providentially led us to this home in Michigan. This old 118-yr-old home with cracked tiles and old wooden floors with dings, paint splatters, and cracks between boards… where nothing is level or standard sized. And we love it! Squeaks, cracks, dog-chewed on windows and all!
It is the Lord’s provision for us and it is perfect.

I will say this house was in major need of some TLC when we moved in. Every square inch needed to be cleaned, painted, repaired, or replaced. But it had good structure, “good bones”.
 
The joy I’ve found in watching this old, tired house come alive reminds me of the Father’s work in our lives. He looks upon what the world would call trash and sees a treasure. Not because we’re already in perfect condition, not because we’re clean, not because we’re level and straight. Far from it. Like a good garage saler seeing the potential in an item, the Father sees the potential in the person with His TLC. His refining, sculpting, refurbishing hand at work in our lives takes us from being a used up, worn-out, cheap piece of junk and makes us into something beautiful to be displayed for His glory before the on-looking world.

I found this solid wood vanity for $8! This was the first piece of furniture for Nya’s “big girl” room in Alaska.

 
So, could it be that the Father feels infinitely greater joy in restoring and renewing us than what I have found in restoring this home and a few measly garage sale finds? I think so. As Ty and I have chipped away at layers of wallpaper and paint to expose what’s underneath, so the Father chips away the hardened, crusty layers of our hearts to expose the sin that lies underneath.
 
 And then as we smoothed on plaster to repair those walls and covered them with fresh paint it reminds me of how the shedding of Christ’s blood is the only way to adequately cover over our sin and repair our hearts.

Our renovation really has been a family project. I love these little helpers!

As Ty stripped out things like carpet, light fixtures, appliances, doors, & trim so the Father has to strip away some of the “old things” from our former life. Just as a light fixture from the 80’s or shag carpet from the 70’s would be a telling sign that a home has not truly been renovated, things like substance abuse, pornography, materialism, and love of money are telling signs that our hearts have not been completely renewed in Christ. They must be stripped away if we are to truly glorify Him.

As I spent those 6.5 hours scrubbing tile with a heavily abrasive cleanser it made me think of how the Father uses abrasive people in our lives at times. People who really rub us the wrong way. People who make us grit our teeth and foam at the mouth. Okay, well maybe you’re nicer than me and that’s never happened, but I have often been frustrated by the people God has used in my life… until I remember that they are being used as tools in His hand to clean and scrub me. Difficult people are like sand paper rubbing off our rough edges. They are like a stiff-bristled scrubbing brush that digs in and gets out the deeply seated dirt hidden in the cracks of our brokenness. After the Father is done using them in our life then we will be more radiant and beautiful for Him.

 And he who was seated on the throne said, 

“Behold, I am making all things new.”
Revelation 21:5

I pray that you would invite Almighty God, our Father, to make all things new in your life today through the power of Jesus Christ our savior and redeemer.