Home Improvement Tips from LOWES

As homeowners, one of the things we enjoy is dreaming about different projects to fix up our old, outdated house.

In the past two years, we’ve put a lot of “sweat equity” into our home, but there’s so much more to do to get it where we would ultimately like it to be.

With a last name like Lowe, one might think that I was an expert on home improvement. Unfortunately for me, no one in my immediate family has any stock in the Home Improvement giant.

Like anything else, most of what I’ve learned about home improvement has come from trial and error. So what lessons have I learned as a homeowner? Here are a few:

“Measure twice and cut once”. Without thinking, I mistakenly routed the hinges on the wrong side of the interior door I was hanging. Ouch...can you say “wood putty?”

When marking for a cut, make your mark clear and distinguishable. I mistook a light smudge for my pencil mark and as a result I cut the door knob hole in the wrong spot. The door was ruined and I had to buy a whole new door.

When doing electrical work, always make sure the power is turned off. Otherwise, you might shock yourself like I did recently while working in the garage. If it weren’t for the fact that I have no hair, I’d be sporting a pretty cool ‘fro’ right now.

When mowing your tall grass/weeds for the first time, make a sweep to ensure there are no unseen obstacles. Otherwise you might run over a large stump and ruin the blade on your brand new lawnmower.

When removing stumps with a stump grinder, know where your sprinklers are. Otherwise you might grind right through two sections of your pipe like I did.

When hanging new electrical wire, don’t hammer the tack too hard over the wire. Otherwise, you might cause a short in the wire and spend a week trying to figure out why your new shop lights won’t work.

My spiritual life is a lot like my house—it’s a work in progress. The theological term associated with our spiritual growth is sanctification—which means “to be set apart.”

Spiritually speaking, we’re in a process of being set apart. Our lives are not completely the way they should be, but with time and effort, we can become the kinds of people that Jesus intends us to be.

It doesn’t happen automatically or just by thinking about it, anymore than my house gets fixed up because I dream about what it might look like someday.

If we want to be different people; if we want to experience the Christian life to the fullest, then we need to be intentional about the end product of our lives.

Yes, it does take work, and there are lots of mistakes along the way. But when that transformation begins to take place, you wonder why you waited so long to make those changes.

Someday, many years from now, our house will look just the way we want it to. What’s even more exciting is that someday, on the other side of this life, our lives will be a perfect reflection of Jesus’ character! Until then, we’re in a process of growth and learning.

Where are you at in your process of spiritual transformation?

Thanks for joining us in our journey. Please continue to pray for us, our ministry and our spiritual journey.