Change in Perspective
Taking a bit of time today to give my mind a break from house-hunting. Emily and I have been researching homes in Boise and we decided to use today to clear our minds. For the past couple of days, I have been consumed by houses and as Emily and I were talking last night, she pointed out that it might be good to take a mental break. I’ll come back to it tomorrow, but for today I’m going to focus on other tasks and consciously push away house-related thoughts.
I hope to gain a renewed perspective as we resume our search. Before we started looking at houses, we verbalized what we wanted and didn’t want. We want to live in an area where we will be forced to interact with our neighbors – a neighborhood! And we want to live in a relatively modest home. We want to own the house. We don’t want the house to own us. We want to determine our lifestyle. We don’t want our mortgage to determine our lifestyle. We want to be able to buy a house on one income. We don’t want to be trapped by this purchase. We would like to live in a culturally and economically diverse area. We don’t want to live in an area where everyone looks like we do. We don’t want to buy out of fear. We want to feel a sense of peace and purpose about the house we buy. We don’t want to be unavailable to others because we are so occupied with our house (working to pay for it, etc.)
By the time I stopped looking for houses last night, I was drooling over a beautiful house that was about $80,000 out of our price range. Now, the truth is that we could potentially afford such a house. But we would have to sacrifice other goals and values to get that house. Em finally took the computer away and shut it off. I needed that. I needed her to remind me of our priorities.
Today, I am taking some time to review those priorities and Em and I are going to take some time to pray together about this house. Granted, buying a house is not the most important decision in our lives, but it might rank in the top 10. We want to be good stewards. In the end, none of what we have really belongs to us. We’re just taking care of it and using it – hopefully, wisely.
I needed to be reminded that we are just stewards. This decision is about more than what we want. What we want is part of the equation, but we also feel a greater responsibility.
I’m looking forward to tackling the housing market with a renewed perspective.
I hope to gain a renewed perspective as we resume our search. Before we started looking at houses, we verbalized what we wanted and didn’t want. We want to live in an area where we will be forced to interact with our neighbors – a neighborhood! And we want to live in a relatively modest home. We want to own the house. We don’t want the house to own us. We want to determine our lifestyle. We don’t want our mortgage to determine our lifestyle. We want to be able to buy a house on one income. We don’t want to be trapped by this purchase. We would like to live in a culturally and economically diverse area. We don’t want to live in an area where everyone looks like we do. We don’t want to buy out of fear. We want to feel a sense of peace and purpose about the house we buy. We don’t want to be unavailable to others because we are so occupied with our house (working to pay for it, etc.)
By the time I stopped looking for houses last night, I was drooling over a beautiful house that was about $80,000 out of our price range. Now, the truth is that we could potentially afford such a house. But we would have to sacrifice other goals and values to get that house. Em finally took the computer away and shut it off. I needed that. I needed her to remind me of our priorities.
Today, I am taking some time to review those priorities and Em and I are going to take some time to pray together about this house. Granted, buying a house is not the most important decision in our lives, but it might rank in the top 10. We want to be good stewards. In the end, none of what we have really belongs to us. We’re just taking care of it and using it – hopefully, wisely.
I needed to be reminded that we are just stewards. This decision is about more than what we want. What we want is part of the equation, but we also feel a greater responsibility.
I’m looking forward to tackling the housing market with a renewed perspective.
posted by Dave Jones at 1:09 PM
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