Memoirs of a Perpetual Home Seller

I started thinking yesterday as I was cleaning my house for the 6748th time that God knew what he was doing when he designed me the way he did. I hate to cook, but I find some strange sense of accomplishment in scrubbing a bathroom and vaccuuming the stairs. I am almost to the end of what I can handle with this whole "home for sale" thing, mind you, but at least I am wired to like cleaning and organizing. If every time that our realtor randomly called, I had to whip up a meal for the potential buyers instead of scrub my glass shower doors, I wouldn't have lasted a month.

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But even being a person who likes to clean, I am getting sick of doing it for other people. What do I get from my hours of toil? I get some random family, whom I will probably never meet, walking through my house for all of 15 minutes, picking apart the place that I love. "Oh, I love the front porch, but I wish they had a bigger laundry room." "The woodwork is great, but I wish the stairs were placed in a different spot." "I wonder why they don't have a TV in their living room, they must be Amish or something." "Did you notice all the trees in the backyard? They are beautiful, but I wish they had a bigger deck off the back..." And if you happen to be thinking of looking at my house - Beware - I do not have stainless steel appliances. Every home buyer on the planet currently wants stainless steel appliances. But guess what? I don't like stainless steele appliances. I have never liked them, and I probably never will. So there.

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This saga will continue for an undetermined amount of time, and I will continue to clean and leave, so Joe Blow can take a tour. Someday, maybe some Joe Blow will actually like our house enough to buy it. Many potential buyers have liked it, in fact, we have supposedly been in the top two multiple times, but second place in the real estate market is really first loser. You don't even get a medal or a ribbon or anything. You just get to let your kids mess it back up, and wait for the next phone call from your real estate agent.

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I really try to focus on just being content where God has us at the moment, and most of the time, I am able to ignore what a nuisance it is to try to sell a house. I am able to ignore it, because we are provided for, and I know the God who is in control of the universe. He has provided us with a beautiful house (I'd buy it). He has given us neighbors whom I adore, and has blessed the kids with great friends on the street. It is really a wonderful place to be. And I need God to constantly remind me that selling a house is so very little in the whole scheme of things. This life is not supposed to be about where I live, but about how I live my life in the space and time God has provided me. Am I loving people the way Jesus wants me to? Am I serving in the way God is calling me to? Am I raising my boys to love Jesus? Those things are important. When I get to heaven, I have a feeling God is not going to ask me one question about real estate.