The Art of Patience

Our family has been gifted with the experience of patience during the last eight months while we had our Florida house up for sale.

I thought I'd write a little bit about our experience, because I find patience to be an interesting topic.

I believe there is more than one type of patience -- there is the active kind and the non-active kind -- and it all starts in the mind. For example, while our Florida house was on the market, I never used the words "Waiting for our house to sell." Why? Because the word "waiting" is passive. Instead I chose to say, "While we sell our Florida home" -- a more active tone.

Having patience is hugely important in life, but it does not mean you do nothing.

While our Florida home was on the market, Paul and I adopted the attitude that our Florida home would sell when our Illinois home was ready for us. We trusted the process. We believed in God's plan and we knew he would put us where he wanted us to be.

Even so, this did not mean we would do nothing during the time our home was on the market. We became active participants in the selling process. We kept in touch with our real estate agent with weekly phone calls, we kept up on market conditions and pricing, we constantly brainstormed and tried new ideas to get attention for the home, and we started, updated and marketed a blog about the house. We did not sit around "waiting" for the sale.

The view from the Master Bdrm.

In addition to the work we did marketing our home, we also consciously worked to enjoy life as it was. You can find evidence of that scattered throughout the pages of this blog. The reason for that is because if you sit in life "waiting" for the next thing, you will be missing out on the life going on around you. And you will miss out on the lessons and gifts that come out of every experience in life -- even the difficult or stressful ones.

Having said that, I must admit the biggest test of our patience came during the closing process of the home sale, and it nearly sent us over the edge. We had to work very hard to remind ourselves that everything would work out. Keeping sane was a big job during that time. We are so grateful to our friends and family who helped to remind us ... "This too shall pass!"

... And, yes, it has passed! Our Florida home is now being taken care of by new owners, and we are super excited to move into our new home! I want to say, "I can't wait!" But I know better! :)