For over three months, a forest green oversized chair and ottoman stood out as the sole piece of furniture in the living room of my new duplex. I loved this chair and it was the only thing to sit on that I brought from my old home. Finding a sofa to go with it was proving way harder than I thought.
Bigger than the problem of designing the room around the chair was the fact that when God was passing out the style genes, I must have been standing in a different line – most likely the line where they were passing out generous helpings of pleasingly plump.
Not only do I have weird taste in material things, I have an approval addiction, and I judged every sofa I looked at by what my friends would think of it.
My friend Jan had rolled her eyes in disbelief when I told her I was looking for plaid or a feminine flower print. “Oh No, micro fiber is what you need to get. Plaid went out long ago.”
So I began looking at the sofas with micro fiber. I could picture myself curled up on a cold winter’s night in this stuff. But every sofa seemed too light, too dark, too wrong kind of cushion etc. Nothing seemed to strike my fancy.
I was growing depressed with each passing day. I couldn’t entertain a guest unless we sat out on the patio furniture. I was feeling desperate.
After retiring in August I was sure I would finally be able to think clearly and be able to pick a sofa out right away. But when Labor Day rolled around I still hadn’t made my choice.
I took my daughter on a whirl wind shopping trip to 4 different stores to see my favorites that week-end. She liked them all plus a few more. AAAUUUGGGHHH!
I went home that evening exhausted and called my friend Al. She seemed sympathetic even though she’d been hearing the same story for months.
“I think I’m just going to hand my checkbook to my friends Jeanne and Marsha, they both have terrific taste. I’ll just let them pick one for me. It would be so much easier than this indecisiveness”, I told Al. She gasped.
That night when I knelt to pray, I laid my head on the bed and cried out. “Lord, I need a couch but I simply cannot decide. Can you help me, please? Would you PLEASE pick out a sofa for me? Lord, show me what your choice is.
If my friends had heard my prayer that night, they would have laughed. Sometime earlier we’d gotten in a discussion about God’s will. One friend was trying to decide on new flooring but couldn’t seem to make up her mind what to go with. When I asked if she had prayed about it, another friend jumped in and said, “I’m not about to stand in the middle of the store and say “Which rug should I buy God.” “In the first place, I don’t have time to wait to hear his answer. And secondly, I think God has too many other, more important, things to think about than what rug I should buy!”
I wondered if I was passing the buck to Jesus when I should be sucking it up and deciding myself. I don’t know why, but it just felt easier to finally ask God what his decision would be.
After church the next day, I made the twenty mile trek back to the shopping area As I turned the corner I passed by the furniture store that has a different sale every week and sure enough the windows announced a big Labor Day Blow out. I had already decided which store I wanted to buy from but nevertheless I felt a real tug at my heart to pull into the driveway.
Just as I entered the store I saw it. It was different than I ever would have imagined buying. The pillows were a tad bit on the wild side and it had loose back pillows which I swore I would never have, but it just kept drawing me in. I couldn’t explain why I liked it. I just did, it said HOME to me.
When I first began shopping for furniture, my friend Althea, a friend of mine from my widow’s organization, First Tea @ Five, got the itch to replace her sofa. So one day she popped into a name brand furniture store to look around. If you’ve ever shopped some of these stores, you know that you feel like road kill as soon as you enter the store. It seems as though the vultures descend upon you. This happened to Al but she just kept repeating “No thanks I’m just looking.”
Finally one young saleswoman named Cindy stepped up and asked if she could get Al a bottle of water. When she brought the water to Al they began conversing and Al learned Cindy was newly widowed. She invited her to our next meeting, and Cindy accepted. I’m always so amazed at the ways God brings new members into our group.
I sat down on the sofa and wiggled around checking out the feel when I suddenly remembered my prayer from the night before. I raised my eyes to the heavens and just shook my head in disbelief. “Thank You” I whispered. Then God whispered back, “Call Cindy.”
Cindy worked at a different branch and wasn’t working that day, but when I called her at home to see how I could buy this ensemble from her and still take advantage of the sale she assured me I had until Tuesday.
As she thanked me for calling, she mentioned that last month she had not met her quota and was in danger of losing her job. This purchase would help her remain on target.
Had God been waiting for me to ask His opinion? Is anything to small for the Lord to be bothered with? I can’t answer that for sure, but I just know when I put God in charge of even the small things in my life the big things don’t seem so daunting.
1 comment:
Cute couch :)
I posted your answered prayer post today. I have been a bit lax with that blog because of my other blogligations :)
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