In our house, we watch alot of HGTV. Doing the Dave Ramsey thing, he encourages you to cut out anything extra, so for our fist two years of marriage we only had very basic channels, no cable. I so missed my HGTV and Joseph missed his sports, but we had a house to work on and two full time jobs and plus, it saved us about sixty dollars a month to put towards debt.
When we moved to Pennsylvania, the cable was the same price as the basic we were paying for in Missouri and on top of that, they gave us a box, so we get OnDemand and all the new HD channels. Life is good. I have my Decorating channels and Joe got SOME sports, but was bummed to find out we do not get the Big Twelve.
Our favorite HGTV shows are things like House Hunters or Property Virgins or My First Place. We are not home renovation experts by any means, but being in our mid- twenties and having a demo/reno under our belt and having purchased two homes, I think we are much more cautious/observant than others our age buying their first home. I think what happens when a new home buyer starts looking for that first home, something inside triggers a mechanism that makes their eyes automatically glaze over. They are so intent on looking for everything on their checklist that they forget to remember the important things. My mother-in-law is a realtor and I am sure that she can attest to this... they just have no home-sense, so you have to have the right realtor who wants you in the right house and will talk you down from the ledge of a home that is not right for the home buyers as opposed to a realtor who is only concerned with closing as many deals as they can to benefit their own pockets! A good example of this is a little couple friend of ours here that was looking at a house that was a short sale...nice home, but the previous tenants had absolutely trashed it, meaning a lot of extra work for them should they purchase it. Their realtor was telling them that they needed to move FAST and put in an offer TODAY and they did not, in his opinion, need to get an inspection. WHAT! This realtor does NOT have their best interest in mind. Joe and I tried to gently insist that you should never buy a home without inspection, especially when you know the previous owners did not take care of the place.
So last night I watched the most unbelievable episode I have ever seen of My First Place. The couple was having their first baby and momma was VERY pregnant. Classic case of the eyes glazed over. They love the house, love the wood floors, love the new appliances, and then there is a smell and they walled down into the basement...cue the scary music! There is over a FOOT of standing water. The sewer has backed up and since it is unoccupied, no one notices, but it was awful! I SO wanted to call our young friends and say "turn on the TV-- this is what happens when you don't get an inspection...something like this could happen and you would be stuck with the cost!" But, I resisted the urge and continued on. The unbelievable part was the husband still WANTED the house! He thought this was a great way to get a price reduction on the house! Can you imagine? So, they have the city drain the water and bring in an inspector and the inspector immediately tells pregnant momma to leave--- there is so much black mold that no one is safe and the bank is only willing to give a 3% credit to remedy the problem, even though it will probably cost in the neighborhood of $60-80k for everything that needs to be repaired and all the mold removal.
So, where am I going with this? Well, I just thought, that is so disgusting- why would anyone WANT to live in that home? But, you know, that is exactly what you and I do daily in our hearts. We look so good and churchy on the outside, but inside there is stinky crud everywhere...and this is where we invite Jesus to live! I have been so convicted lately that I do not want to live a life that is fake, but a very real and honest life that others can see how God used me, faults and all. I think that is what turns people off of Christianity altogether- they see through the fake-ness and are disgusted. What they need to see is Christians being very open and laying it all on the line and being real. They need to see that there are no perfect people, just a perfect God who loves us all, even with our stinky filth.
Today I start spring-cleaning in my heart, making it a home that I will be proud to offer Jesus. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
"Come and make my heart your home.
Come and be everything I am and all I know.
Search me through and through, till my heart becomes a home for you.
Let everything I do open up a door for you to come through,
so that my heart would be a place where you want to be."
-Watermark
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