"When the House is Built"

Some of you probably laughed when you read this title--or maybe you rolled your eyes. Yes, this is the #1 Tero phrase going around right now.

"When the house is built, we'll have to have you over."

"When the house is built, maybe we can meet up for coffee."

"When the house is built, we'll plan on that."

"When the house is built, we'll have some free time!"

"When the house is built..." 

You name it. Almost everything has been tagged onto that one phrase.

It is best to accept the long house-building process with good humor, so we laugh at ourselves about it (yes, as one of our church friends suggested, we'll probably be having Jessica make us a sign that says "When THE HOUSE IS BUILT!!!!!").

One thing I have begun to notice, though, is that this attitude of "When the house is built" started to seep into my spiritual walk. "Ah! I'm behind on memory verses. Oh well. When the house is built, I'll do them more faithfully." Now, instead of being faithful to do what I could, I was tempted to just do enough to "get by." Yes, there have been (and will be) seriously busy days in which I will only be able to spend a few minutes in God's Word, but because I started waiting for "when the house is built," I missed those less-busy days in which I could have done more.

Thankfully, the Lord brought my attention to this attitude and has helped me to be more faithful until the house is built. This is not the first time something like this has happened in my life. We all have those times of thinking, "When ____ is over..." You may not be waiting for a house to be built, but is there something that has tempted you to pause in your spiritual walk instead of continually climbing forward? I encourage you to take a moment and ponder your spiritual walk.