Jul 20, 2015 3 min read

What a week! You may recall that my kids were gone on various church-related activities, and my husband and I were home alone. We did manage to spend one day together, heading to the Uniontown area to do a little antiquing.

Aside from that day and a couple quick dinners out, I worked mostly on completing the home remodeling projects I had started. That included the plumbing of last column – which at this writing is still working leaklessly – and the foyer I had begun months ago as a surprise for my husband for Father’s Day.

That’s right, Father’s Day 2015. I’m late – and that is no surprise to anyone.

Anyway, I dragged a ladder, a paintbrush, a roller, some roller covers and a handful of other items up to this foyer, determined to finish it by week’s end. Three colors of paint, my first time caulking seams, blend new trim into old trim – how hard could it be?

Why do I open my mouth to say things like that? Won’t I ever learn?

The first thing I discovered is that I am a terrible paint scraper. I had gouged and pitted the old trim terribly, and all of those imperfections would need to be filled with putty or caulking. In addition to those marks, there were several other places that needed attention. And when I finished that, I discovered four places that the plaster had cracked from the semi-annual shifting of the farmhouse.

I plastered (all right, I got the husband to do that part), I caulked, I let stuff dry. After a couple repeats of that process, I finally began painting. Two coats each of Georgian Leather on the wall and Coffee with Cream on the trim, and I thought I was done. Then I remembered the ceiling. After that was completed, I had to go back and touch up several places on the walls and trim where ceiling paint had marred the already completed surfaces.

And don’t get me started on the floor. I guess drop cloths help keep from having to scrub up all of those little paint spots. Really, though, how do people remodel all of the time – it’s hard work! And to top it all off, I could still see every imperfection that I had left – or made – on the walls.

You know, I believe God spent his time with me this week teaching me humility. I tend to forget how much I need him and begin to focus on how I can fix everything in my life. I think that all I need is to slap a little paint over my sins and call it a day.

But the truth is, there is a whole lot more going on behind the scenes than it looks like. The amazing thing is that God is not simply nailing and caulking me back together, hoping that paint makes me look OK. He promises to make me new – brand new – each day that I rely on him instead of my own strength and pride.

When it is all said and done, the room looks pretty nice. My husband is happy with his gift, and while the process wasn’t pretty, the end result is not too shabby.

With God’s help, one day perhaps even better can be said of me!

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.