We’re still here. The house still isn’t sold but hope is not lost–we had a second showing today. How do we know that? Our scheduling service called as we were driving home from Stake Conference to tell us we had a showing in a half hour. What? We raced home and did a hack job on picking up the house. Thankfully it was still in good shape from a deeper cleaning we did yesterday but then the couple showed up 15 minutes early and rang the doorbell when they saw our car still in the driveway. We told them we needed a bit more time and they patiently waited on the porch and on the way out mentioned this was their second visit.
And then the scheduling service called us to follow-up and mentioned when the realtor opened the blinds in our bedroom, they fell down and she couldn’t get them back up. Somebody shoot me now.
We’re more than a month into selling the house in an insane, inflated Denver market where people are getting multiple offers within a day of listing their homes. Our main issue has been our neighbor’s lot behind us, which he kindly cleaned up about 10 days ago and it has made a world of difference. The only problem is we’ve had minimal showings since then and it’s painful because our yard is in bloom and looks gorgeous.
After several weeks of spiritual confirmations where we would open our scriptures to receive an outpouring of love and answers, this week has been full of frustration and walls. What are we doing wrong? Are we going on the right direction with this? We already dropped our price but should we doing more?
We received our monthly copy of The Ensign and I turned immediately to the story Vienna Jaques: Woman of Faith and thought, boy do I need a spiritual boost and to read about a faithful woman.
Vienna Jaques had been in her new home in Jackson County, Missouri, USA, for only six weeks when violence erupted on July 20, 1833. Local residents had demanded that the Latter-day Saints leave the county, but Church leaders demurred to accept. Mobs in the area then attacked Church members and their property.
On that day, 46-year-old Vienna saw the mob tar and feather Edward Partridge, the bishop in Missouri, and Charles Allen. Meanwhile, others demolished the Church’s print shop and threw the printing press and papers out the window, including unbound and incomplete copies of the Book of Commandments. After the attack, Vienna knelt in the dirt road alone, furiously collecting scattered pages of the Book of Commandments. A mobber came over and hovered menacingly over her, declaring, “Madam, this is only a prelude to what you have to suffer.”
I chuckled and closed the magazine. This was my answer? I can guarantee you that was not what I needed to read. A few days later I went back to read the rest of the article (life did suck for a while but got much better). Turns out, God has a sense of humor.
We fasted today and Stake Conference was full of spiritual feasting that I needed. This evening, we went for one of my favorite walks along the Clear Creek Trail in Golden. We fed the chickens at the Clear Creek History Park. We marveled at the idiots floating down the swollen waters on an inflatable mattress. We threw rocks in the river. We discovered a secret trail away from the crowds
I left feeling refreshed and grateful. This whole process of uprooting a life we love for reasons beyond me has been such a roller-coaster ride and test of faith. I really wouldn’t want to do this alone. Without that comfort. Scriptures. Prayer. Reverence. Guidance. I read a quote today by D. Todd Christofferson that really hit home.
If one does not appreciate holy things, he will lose them. Absent a feeling of reverence, he will grow increasingly casual in attitude and lax in conduct. He will drift from the moorings that his covenants with God could provide. His feeling of accountability to God will diminish and then be forgotten. Thereafter, he will care only about his own comfort and satisfying his uncontrolled appetites. Finally, he will come to despise sacred things, even God, and then he will despise himself.
With a sense of the sacred, one grows in understanding and truth. The Holy Spirit becomes his frequent and then constant companion. More and more he will stand in holy places and be entrusted with holy things. Just the opposite of cynicism and despair, his end is eternal life.
A sense of the sacred cannot really be passed from one person to another. It must grow from within. Think about things in a contemplative way; then the Spirit may work in you so that you will not need anyone to tell you what is sacred or how to respond—you will feel it for yourself. It will be part of your nature; indeed, much of it already is.
Stand in Holy Places. Now, that is the answer I needed.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 