From the Home Place

Here I sit at 4:30 a.m. on Friday, 8/8/25. I’ve read Scripture, I’ve prayed and now I write. Yesterday our friend Jeff helped us put in a new window on our ‘ol house. Oh, we had a plan: We were going to pop the window in right quick and then put a door in on the east side of the house. A good day’s effort for three old folks, but we felt quite confident that we could get it done; and then we started.

The first thing we noticed was that there was old, wood, lap siding underneath the tarpaper on the side of the house where the new window was to go. Hum, do we spend the better part of the day removing that old siding, or do we shim and adjust to attempt to make the wall reasonably flat for our new window? We chose the first. So for the rest of the morning we painfully removed layer after layer of the very old wood siding that was “full” of nails.

Lunch, and then we began with new insulation, moving electrical lines and then sheeting with OSB.
Finally, with the better part of our day behind us, we were able to install the window! The new window looks great from the inside and the outside of the house looks really nice as well. But, we didn’t get to install the new door – Suprise!

What’s the old saying, “The best laid plans of mice and men…” Though things didn’t go according to our original plan, we now have a new window in our dining room, installed correctly – Praise God! Life has a way of changing our plans, but God is faithful to help us do the better part. We saw no need to get angry and pitch a fit about the trials of the day. Just take a deep breath, pray and readjust.

How was it that Jesus spoke of such situations, “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Life is full of troubles, yet God’s grace if more than sufficient to deal with the troubles of each day. Jesus never promised that everything would always be full of sunshine, but He does promise to walk through the storms with us. Remember Jesus said, “And lo, I am with you always.”

So today, we hope to get the steel on the new roof. But if God has a better plan, we will go with it. Yep, “One day at a time sweet Jesus.” I encourage you, no matter what this day holds for your life, remember Who holds your life. Take His hand and walk into this new day, as soon as the sun comes up.

Dealing with daily surprises with you, Neal