Take it One Step at a Time

Last year my parents gifted us a deck. Dad designed it, and with the help of my husband, brother-in-law, and a couple friends - it was completed. Mom helped to seal it and shopped for the patio furniture. We only had the new furniture for a week when the wind came up and smashed the new glass table into shards.

This was devastating at first but I couldn't let a broken table ruin my summer so I shared and idea with my Dad. Within a few days he added plywood to the table frame. We all sifted through family pictures and made a collage on top the wood - it was a beautiful table top of memories for the summer. Sadly, it didn't fair well in the sun and rain. It was a faded and torn but a remembrance of a family time spent.

"Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
1 Samuel 7:12

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This spring I found a great wrought iron patio set for an amazing price, so the tattered table was stripped of the remaining photos and placed on the side of the road. A family took it to do the same thing ~ isn't that cool, our family idea passed along to another. As I stepped off the deck to flip the burgers the other night I said, "I wish I didn't have to put shoes on to get to the grill, or that I wasn't such a wimp about stepping on the little rocks." We all laughed but this gave me an idea.

We have lake stones around our fire pit and in the flower gardens, or should I say, "We did." Now they reside on top of the pea stones between the deck and the grill. Guess what, I placed a few stones between and thought, "Wow, that looks good." and a couple trips to the lake as a family created this beautiful addition to our back deck and my writing escape.

"Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers,
but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."
Ephesians 2:19-22

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I'm thankful for parents who listen. My dream is to one day own a writer's cottage by the water. Instead of waiting for "someday" to come, my parents used their love as fuel to make this dream come true now, rather than later. A crick runs by our house so I now have a writer's cottage by the water in my back yard - the lake stones were the cherry on top of a great gift. One that keeps on giving. Thank you Mom and Dad!

"Whether we see a roadblock or a
bridge depends on our view on life. With a positive outlook, we can turn any obstacle into a stepping stone."
~ Kemmy Nola ~

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Don't focus on the wrong turns, celebrate the steps taken!