Blessed with a "No"

Sometimes the answer to prayers is not what we want to have happen. We are finding this true in regards to our attempt to move 2 years ago. We SO wanted to move, we SO wanted to be closer to family, to be where there are seasons, for change. We SO loved where we were headed, the town, the state, the area. But God said "NO". It wasn't an audible voice but it was in the difficulties we had with selling our house, with my husband's job, with the high cost of housing there.

We came back. We were grateful for time spent with Granny. Grateful for our home. Grateful that we had options. But along with that gratefulness, we were disappointed. All that energy, and planning and hoping only to end up where we'd come from.

Fast forward 2 years- the housing market has taken such a dive in the area where we would have been that had the move been successful, we'd now be living in a house, smaller than what we have, in a neighborhood that was a little seedier, owing more than what it was worth. And those are just the obvious things.

God knew, we didn't, but there were still enough roadblocks that we were forced to turn around and follow the right path. I complained, I was stressed but now I am grateful to have been blessed with a no.

Running Over and Barging Through

I've realized that one of the things I do- and need to change- is to "barge over" my children in order to "take care of business". I'm ashamed to say I stole the limelight from my youngest recently when he went to give a thank you gift. I needed to "take care of business" and tromped all over the sweet boy in the act of giving. I am ashamed. These things can wait. More important things should take precedent- I was not acting in an emergency. Breathe. Wait. Learn patience and a willingness to step back for a moment or two and let my children shine.

Seeing Aslan

"...it must have been a dream."
"No. It wasn't a dream," said Edmund.
... there are the clothes for one thing. And you have been- well, un-dragoned, for another."
"What do you think it was then?" asked Eustace.
"I think you've seen Aslan"...

C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

New Clothes

Then he caught hold of me- I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on- and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and soon... I found all the pain had gone...
After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me... in new clothes.

C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Smaller

Then the lion said..."You will have to let me undress you" I was afraid... but I was pretty nearly desperate... The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began puling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. ... Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off- just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt- and there it was, lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking that the others had been. And there I was as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been .

C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

No Good

I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling ... just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. ...So I scratched and tore again and this under-skin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well... the same thing happened again... however many skins have I got to take off?... I scratched away for the third time... and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.

C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Casting My Skin

But the lion told me I must undress first... I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins.... So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully... In a minute or two I just stepped out of it.

C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader