The Silver Lining: Ten Reasons that Not Moving is Not Bad

We took our home off the market this weekend.  Our realtor removed the sign before knocking on the door so that we wouldn’t have to watch as it became official–we were not moving. I’ve not allowed myself to dwell on the reality because I don’t want to feel disappointed; I love my home and where we live–I just wish we could spend more time together as a family.

I hadn’t planned on doing a top ten list today; however, I thought this exercise would be good for me, would force me to look ahead with hope and anticipation.  So here goes my top ten list for why not moving is not a bad thing:

10. A Clutter-free Life: Getting ready to move was extremely stressful and took a couple of months of going to bed after midnight every night to finish.  However, we needed the deadline to remove every piece of clutter from our home, and as a result, my every days are clutter-free and smoother, as well.  I won’t have to start over in a new home; I can enjoy the set-up of this one.

9. A New Routine: Keeping an entire home clean and ready to present any day of the week was a challenge, especially with three destructive little ones running around.  However, I found a cleaning routine that works for me and that I can continue. I cleaned before, but my house looks the best it’s ever looked because of our attempt to move.  I know I can keep this routine going.  And who doesn’t like a clean house?

8. New Carpet: Our old carpet was disgusting. End of story.

7. Our Garden: For the four years that we’ve lived here, I’ve wanted to plant a garden.  However, every year I was either very pregnant at planting time or home with a newborn and other children.  The garden wasn’t a priority.  This year, however, my whole family and I got our hands dirty, made memories, and grew the best produce and herbs I’ve ever tasted.  I can’t wait to expand our garden next year.

6. Our Backyard: Our yard is large and level–perfect for three kids running around or driving laps in PowerWheels. In addition to being the perfect yard, the location is great, too. We’re located right next to the swim/tennis in our neighborhood.  Part of our fence opens up to the path leading to the pool.  What could be more perfect during these hot, Georgia summers?

5. Teamwork: Through this process, we’ve all discovered how to help one another. The baby is the only one who doesn’t make her bed, clean her room, or put away clothes.  Our family is a team, and we work together.

4. Church:  We get to continue going to the church that we love, 12Stone Church, and grow our friendships.  And I’ll continue one of my joys this fall–leading with my husband another small group .

3. Focused Family Time: We wanted to move closer to Matt’s work so that we could spend more time together as a family, and Matt would spend less of his time in the car. Right now, that plan is not to be, so as we’ve been doing for the last few months, we’ll have to be intentional about our family time.  And intentional time as a family is definitely not a bad thing.

2. Honoring the Sabbath:  Even though I know God commands that we use the Sabbath to worship and rest, I’m not sure if the rest part would have become a priority had we not planned to move.  After working so hard every week, I needed a rest on Sunday. And since I knew the weekend was our reserved family time together, I made sure I got all of my chores completed by Saturday night so that we could use Sunday to focus on God and family.  I now realize why God commanded the Sabbath in the first place and wish I had taken His instruction seriously from the beginning.  This practice is one I will ensure we keep.

1. Discovering God’s Will: The frustrating part of this journey is not knowing God’s will for us.  We prayed about our decision before we ever put the ‘For Sale’ sign in our yard and asked God to guide us.  If it were not His will, we did not want to move (even though we really wanted to move).  I’m not sure what He has in store for us, if there is a specific purpose we are to accomplish here, or if we are just products of a bad housing market.  What I do know is that if God had a specific purpose for us to live in Alpharetta, then our house would’ve sold.  And while I’m disappointed, I will rest in that fact and continue to seek His will for our family.

I’ve linked today’s post at OhAmanda for Top Ten Tuesday.  Head on over for some fun reading!