Temporary Home

Today I had the opportunity to drive home after class today because my softball practice was cancelled due to weather conditions. During Spring Semester, I rarely get the chance to drive home, but when I do it is usually to stay for just one night. I haven't been home in a month, and my drive home this time was the most difficult one to get through. 

"I thought if I could touch this place or feel it this brokenness inside me might start healing.
Out here it's like I'm someone else, I thought that maybe I could find myself.
If I could just come in I swear I'll leave. Won't take nothing but a memory
from the House that Built Me.

My parents recently sold my childhood home. I am the youngest of three, and my two older siblings have families of their own now. Our house was just too big for my parents and I, so we are currently living in a rental house while building our new home on a plot of land not far from where I used to live. This has been one of the hardest times in my life I have ever had to go through. I am not one who likes change. I went to the same school from Pre-K to 12th grade. I have wanted to be in the medical field ever since I was seven years old. My softball career started when I was in first grade, and I never really played much of any other position besides catcher. As you can see, my life is very consistent and when God introduces new plans I do not handle them well.

When my parents came to me in the Fall of last year about selling our home, I broke down in tears. I thought they were joking, and I convinced myself our house would never sell. Six months later, I am sitting in my new bedroom of our rental house typing this post and reminding myself that God has not left me alone during this time of sorrow. A good friend of mine from college reminded me that home is not made from the walls and floor surrounding you but by the love and memories made among family members inside the home. 

"By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures." Proverbs 24:3-4

I felt this Bible verse was very fitting in reference to what my friend was telling me. A home is not the actual place you drive to each day from work or school. Home is built upon by faith in God and the understanding that God is the center of the household. Money and materialistic things do not make a home rich; the wealth of love, happiness, joy and peace are the rare and beautiful treasures.

"But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15

Joshua 24:15 holds a special meaning to me because my Mom had this verse hung up in a frame right outside my room in my childhood home. It serves as a reminder that I come from a family of faithful followers. My house was not what I came to when I was upset; it was my family. I share love and laughter with my parents and siblings, and that will never change no matter where we live. I will always have their love, encouragement and support to fall back on regardless of our address. As you can see in the pictures below, change is something we cannot help.The memories will never go away, and the last sixteen years have been exciting. I will always love my first home because it is the one I grew up in, the place my personality and character was molded, and the source of my most cherishable life memories. I pray that my home is just as good to the next family as it was to me in the times I needed it the most. 401 will forever be my favorite place.

Change. It is something I have been praying about a lot throughout my Sophomore year of college. As you will hear in later posts, God has introduced many new opportunities for me in these last two semesters than I could have ever imagined. A new home. A new summer job. A new nephew. These are all blessings from above that I cannot wait to share about in the future. 

With Love & Laughter, 

Alison