Yikes! Nail Polish on the Carpet!

My husband and I married over 21 years ago, each of us bringing three wonderful children into a blended family of eight. Terry had been living in a small apartment and I was in a small three bedroom rambler at the time of our union. We obviously opted for my rambler, but when all the kids were with us it was definitely close quarters. So we began a house search. We wanted to be closer to our church, which unfortunately took us to a less affordable part of town. The houses for which we could qualify were not much bigger than the one we were in, so it became a rather disheartening effort. But then one day this house came on the market. It had been sitting vacant for a year and listed with another agency, but now was relisted. Our realtor drove us in his car to see the house. Terry sat in the front passenger seat and I was behind him in the back. As we entered the neighborhood, I felt a strange uneasiness as if there had to be a mistake. This was a beautiful neighborhood with mature trees and noticeably larger homes than what we had been seeing. Now, I had always dreamed of owning a traditional two-story home on a wooded lot. No visions of grandeur. Just a modest two-story. We pulled up in the driveway and I’m not sure if the guys noticed, but I began to silently weep. Before me stood a modest two-story on a wooded lot and it seemed as if God himself looked down with a smile and said, “Laurie, this is for you.” We stepped inside the house and as our realtor and my husband began listing off all the things that were wrong, like painted wallpaper, appliances and countertops (yes, really), all I could do was see the potential. I fell in love with a house.

We’ve been in that house for 21 years as of this month. We’ve done a lot to it and I’ve poured my heart and soul into the design and decor and the yard on which it sits. But some years back we almost lost this dream of mine. Back in the early 2000’s it was pretty easy to get a mortgage and houses were selling like hotcakes. We saw some promising financial possibilities and I wanted to be the next Chip and Joanna Gaines, so we purchased a couple of houses (NOT with cash) to flip. This would be great! It would pay some college expenses for the kids and help us add onto the house. We worked hard and I loved being the design lady. We were ready to sell the homes and put them on the market just before the big housing market crash of 2008. Not great timing. Rather foolishly, we had already begun our home addition and remodel and now we had two houses that weren’t selling. We eventually sold one but really just broke even and the other we ended up renting for nearly ten years. Things were not good financially in the Cross household. Like many others, we were upside down with our mortgage and making our monthly payments was becoming more and more difficult. This, my friends, was the beginning of a very important heart change for me.

I’m a sentimental person. Memories attached to things make the things very precious to me. That included my house. There was a chance that we could lose this house. The thought of it tore me apart inside. But I realized at that point that I was holding on too tightly to an earthly possession that God had blessed us with and entrusted to us for a time. I needed to confess this disordered affection to the Lord and be willing to give up my house if that’s what He wanted me to do. Well, God miraculously got us through that financial crisis and at that point I committed this home to Him–to gather people, host and serve people, to reach my neighbors and to make this a sweet place where the Holy Spirit is present and felt. This ordeal taught me the importance of holding things loosely. It’s just stuff. It will not last.

Now, you may be wondering why the title of this post is about nail polish on the carpet. Well, let me tell you. My 7-year-old granddaughter was here for an overnighter on Friday evening. While we were watching “Mary Poppins” I polished her nails. The next morning I noticed we should do a little touch up, so I took the bottle out to perfect a couple of nails. I set the bottle aside and later went to pick it up by the cap, not realizing I had not screwed it on tightly. And then it happened. The bottle tumbled onto the light beige carpet in our main family room and deposited bright fuschia pink nail polish right in the middle of the walking path.

There are moments when you realize how much you’ve changed. This was one of them. I didn’t freak out. I looked down in shock for a moment, made a lighthearted comment to my granddaughter and went to get some polish remover and cotton balls. All that did was smear it in more. My husband saw it later and suggested we just add more pink spots all over the carpet so it looks like it’s supposed to be that way. I didn’t like that idea, so later I put every product on it I could find, let it sit and then used lots of elbow grease to eventually get it to a less noticeable state. We needed to replace this carpet anyway. It’s probably going to happen a little sooner than we thought. But the point I’m trying to make is that I didn’t really get that upset. I even laughed about it. I know it’s just carpet.

Now, I still love to decorate my home and like nice things and my sentimentality can get the better of me at times, but I’ve grown in my ability to see past the stuff to the One who has richly provided. I know it is all His and I am to be a good steward of it. Let me encourage each of us to hold loosely all God has given us, share with those in need and use our stuff to bless others. Let’s use our earthly treasures to build treasure where it really counts.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)