Saying Goodbye to the Pink House

Over eight years ago when my husband and I purchased a house closer to his work and our church, right away I dubbed it the ‘Pink House’.  I had never been a huge fan of pink but the lady who had the home before us certainly was.  It had brand new carpet that was a Pepto pink, countertops all pink, vertical blinds pink, the outside had pink accents, and even the tile had pink wisps next to the white.  As a joke once we bought it we began ‘Operation Depinking’.  Over the years we’d managed to either work with the pink, or change a lot of it.  We put a lot of work into that house.  It’s odd how homes can almost become like members of the family.  The pink grew on me.

For a whole list of reasons, that at the moment I’m not going to publicly go into, Dan and I had felt we needed to sell the pink house.  Simply put the time had come to move forward into a new season of our lives, and while we loved our home, in order to go to the next season the house needed to be sold.  Honestly we thought the process would be a long ordeal, or we probably wouldn’t have put it on the market when we did.  The house was only on the market for two days, and had two bids right away, but that is story we’ll save for another time. 

We moved from the pink house this weekend.  It was a myriad of bittersweet emotions.  We knew it was the right choice, and I have no regrets.  However it was emotional.  My youngest daughter was born since we bought the home, we thought of all the friends that had come and gone in that time.  My grandmother, who has since moved in with Jesus, helped us move into the house.  We thought of our spiritual poppa, who also has moved in with Jesus, and the times he was over to the house.  My list can go on and on.  Special memories can play like a film projector in your mind with some sappy orchestra music if you let it, and while we all know that selling the house can never take those memories it was very emotional.

When God is doing a new season in your life it can be so easy to hold onto the old.  Your emotions can run their course, and it’s as if with such a tight grip you may not want to let go.  Emotions aren’t a bad thing, and neither are memories.  However if you let them control your decisions then you’ll never be able to move in the timing of God.

Philippians 3:12 (NIV) “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected;   but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”

So I want to encourage you all today, as my family and I mourn the ending of one season and rejoice in what is ahead, to let go of the things where God is leading you to let go.  Hold tightly where he is telling you to move forward, and be every obedient to move in the direction of His leading.  Whatever the ‘Pink House’ is in your life, it’s not worth getting outside of your destiny and the leading of God.  The memories will always be there, but now it’s time to move forward into something new.

Isaiah 43:18-19a (NIV) “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it?  I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

God has awesome plans for your life.  Get excited!