Build What You Love

I can remember when I first heard God speak to me about how Rudy and I were called to love people. Well, my first thought was probably the same as yours right now, “of course, aren’t we all called to love people”. And yes, we are, but in the years to come, we discovered how God brought us together to fulfill a call to love people in our own little unique way.

It was a very hot summer day in July of 2010. We were building the current home we live in today, and I was painting in the living room. I was exhausted, frustrated and questioning every decision we had made in our marriage to this point. Why did we sell our first home? Should we really live in a metal building? Does building again in front of this house make sense? What’s next? What goals? How many kids will we have? Do I even want to live here on this property forever? And with the afternoon sun beaming through my front window of my unfinished living room, I saw a glimpse of our entire front yard… (it’s a very large front yard) And I heard God speak probably the clearest I’ve ever heard Him speak to me, he said “I’ve planted you here, now build what you love and I will fill it with people for you to love”.

That was almost 11 years ago now that we began building what we love, dreaming about the future and realizing just how special the 1.32 acres are that we call home. But we weren’t in our cute little metal building home long when I realized our dreams weren’t going to just happen on their own. Rudy and I were going to have to get serious about the things that were in our heart because time passed quickly, and after 2 years of saying our dream out loud “one day we would build a home in front of this home”… that “one day” seemed further and further away and the dream just became words. We were busy with 3 little ones, Stanley was an infant, Maci was the busiest little 1 year old, I literally couldn’t keep up with her. I remember judging those moms with those toddler leashes and saying “I’ll never put my child on a leash”. Well, don’t ever say that… because God will make you eat those words. Maci had a leash, just so that I could keep her in reach. And ashton was all boy with lots of energy and never really understood what bedtime was.

In this crazy season of parenting and life, God gave me a scripture in Proverbs that reads; “Put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭24:27‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I really like the way the scripture reads in the amplified Bible. It says it this way: “[Put first things first.] Prepare your work outside and get it ready for yourself in the field; and afterward build your house and establish a home.”

“Put first things first” really stuck out, I just really didn’t understand how we were failing in this area, we loved God and we loved His people. God began to show us that in order to fulfill the dreams He had put in our heart, first things first meant we would have to be a little more intentional, actually a lot more intentional about putting our work in order. There are 3 areas that we really began to focus on.

The first was, Be Intentional With Our Finances. We began to look at our monthly income and our monthly spending and began to set a budget that included the costs of our dreams. We learned to set short term and long term financial goals. We have had to say No to many things we wanted in the moment, but to be intentional we had to just say not right now. Luke 14:28 reads “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?” So, we counted to cost, often. If you ask Rudy, he might tell you too often. I would sit and look at the budget and ask him to call and get the phone bill cheaper one month, then a few months later, I would study our finances again and I would ask him if we could get the cable bill reduced, or do we really need cable? Being intentional with our finances also meant to be eternally minded with what God has already given us. Everything we have has been given by Him, so when our hearts say “GIVE”, we do just that, We Give! Rudy is so amazing at hearing God in this area. I never know when I’m going to get a text from him that says “I feel we need to give…” If I’m honest, I used to get frustrated with him always wanting to give, but when we became intentional with our finances, I began to understand the scripture in Acts 20:35 that says “I am more blessed to give than to receive”.

Next, Be Intentional In How We Love People. Working for a church you can get very relaxed about loving people and kind of feel like you are always loving people. Rudy and I had to discover our unique purpose and then combine it with our unique gifts. We are so different, but we can compliment each other so well when we are purposeful. We both have a heart to see people grow in their walk with Christ, we just needed to learn how we could accomplish it together. I am very much the extrovert and will talk to anyone that stands there long enough to listen, Rudy is much more reserved, and likes a smaller setting. Small Groups have given us the opportunity to use our gifts in our own way. We have always led small groups of different kinds from a bowling group to bible studies, we enjoyed being with people. Seven years ago we decided to have our first family small group in our home. Family because it’s simply just our season of life, full of kids and a lot of noise. And at our home because we knew that God has specifically spoken to us about Him filling our home with people to love. We started with a few families that met twice a month on Sunday evenings. We would cook something, visit, and then always have some version of a bible study with the kids running through the room making lots of noise. It’s funny how much they needed us parents as soon as we would begin our devotion time together. Our little group with just a few families grew and before long our living room that seats six comfortably had twenty plus adults sitting on top of each other and too many kids to count. In our small group we have cried together, laughed together, we encourage each other, and we challenge each other to be better. It has been exciting to watch families in our small group all get baptized as a family, discover their own purpose, find joy in serving in church, and become stronger families. Our group has become a family and we couldn’t imagine doing life without them.

And lastly, We Became Intentional With Our Vision. Habakkuk 2:2 says to “write the vision and make it plain on tablets, so that he may run who reads it.” Our vision for our family, our future, our dreams was only in our hearts. We never really wrote out what we envisioned. I’ll be honest, at first, writing these things out made things in the natural even more confusing, because what we wrote and drew really didn’t seem possible. It didn’t make sense, but we knew it’s what God was speaking to our hearts. The more we drew and the more we would write, the bigger we would dream and the clearer the vision would become. I would draw rooms that I saw in our dream home and I can remember writing bible study room in one of the drawings. No, I don’t have a specific room just for bible studies, but I see my dining room being used for bible studies. I see my front porch as a place we can have coffee or sweet tea with a friend and just listen when they are having a bad day. I see my keeping room a cozy little room that we can pray with someone and believe God with them for a miracle in their life. We don’t just see a dream home, we see a place the God will build for us as a family to love people in every season of their lives.

God has put dreams in your heart just like He has put dreams in ours. I want to encourage you to be intentional about seeing those dreams through and if you dare to ask God to show you just one step you can take, I believe He will begin to make the path clear for you to build what you love!