When the Wait Becomes Dwelling – Guest Post Christen Price

I met Christen at a conference called She Speaks in 2011. I reconnected with her another conference called Allume this past October. She has a heart to share God’s word with women and children. I know you will be blessed by her post.

When the Wait Becomes Dwelling

“One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple”

 – Psalm 27:4

We’ve dreamed about our forever home since our years of dating.  He, the architect, enchants me with sketches of Craftsman homes wrapped with porches; inviting us to watch stars paint the night sky.  I, the creative, keep magazine articles and Pinterest ideas tucked away; waiting for the right moment to assemble all of the colors, textures, and styles into our perfect home.  This past summer our family moved to our hometown and we’ve been waiting for the right time to start making our dream home a reality.

Our dream home can’t be built until our first home has sold.  It sits, this gingerbread house, waiting for another family to want to call it home.  Its’ roof has offered protection to our family for the past four years and the rooms hold too many memories to fill a shoebox.  The kitchen laughs, telling the tale of the first supper he and I ever ate; a meal full of surprise and smoke.  It was in our bathroom that I held the strip with two pink lines announcing we would be parents. The first room up the stairs sat the rocking chair that I wept in while waiting for our premature infants to come home.  The room around the corner, with the sloped ceiling, held a lit screen and keyboard, where I first bravely typed our story to share with the world.  Our memories in the brick home will always remain; but we must part ways.

While waiting, we’ve landed in a house made of wood.  Its’ decor is old-fashioned with giant flowers multiplying across papered-walls.  The layout is an architectural nightmare with too many doors opening in one tight space.  This dated house doesn’t look like much of a place to call home, but it is here that my family is discovering the gift of dwelling in the house of the Lord.

This temporary home, with gold carpet and laminate floors, is teaching our hearts to beat to the rhythm of The Architect.  He sketches out our life plans and he designs our souls to want His love over material things.  The Architect is providing us His house to lodge in.  By not giving us what we want right now, He is asking us to wait in His will.

He whispers for us to be hospitable, even if our home is outdated.  We hang pictures of four smiling faces, thankful that our family is united instead of living in separate cities.  On the window sill, I place God-breathed words to remind me that He plans out our days.  Boxes are unpacked and a Christmas tree lights up the living room; reminding us that Christ brings peace and hope for the future.

Living in a temporary home has reminded me how time on earth is temporary too.  My architect and I want to build our forever home, but our earthly desires of filling a house with efficient floor plans and chevron fabric must not outweigh our greatest desire to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.

To dwell in the house of the Lord – this is what we must seek.

Christen Price blogs at Illuminate, where she seeks to brighten, reveal, and make clear the uncontainable truth. As wife to her high school sweetheart and mother to premature twin girls, she’s learned to trust God’s plans even when life (or her house) is messy. Christen is the Children’s Ministry Coordinator at her church, a lover of exclamation points, and gets way too excited over food and fabric. You can find her on Facebook and Etsy, or on Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter @chris10price.