We had lived in our new home a few months when Name Brand Clothing offered Jeremy a job in the Kansas City area. Now, they had offered him jobs in other cities before, but we had always known we weren't supposed to take them. So, we had turned down other jobs they had offered him, all with pay increases. And, at this point, Jeremy liked the job he was doing for Name Brand Clothing quite a bit. He was the regional director over all the Name Brand Clothing Stores in the Tulsa region, and it was a perfect job, really. He was off every evening at 5:00 and didn't work weekends. It was wonderful, and really a life we hadn't known when Jeremy was a store manager.
But, Name Brand Clothing had a store in Lenexa, KS (which is near Kansas City) that had never been successful. They had tried several managers, and the store had never been profitable. Rusty, the owner of Name Brand Clothing, asked Jeremy if he would be willing to move to the Kansas City area and manage that store. One last try before they closed it for good.
As soon as Jeremy told me about that offer, I knew we would be moving. I just knew in my heart we were supposed to go. I think Jeremy knew it too. But, it was such a huge decision, and we really wanted to be sure it was what God wanted us to do. I mean, God had always led us pretty clearly in times past when we had big decisions to make, and we thought He would do the same thing again. So, we kept thinking and praying about it for about a month.
Nothing. Just that peace that we were supposed to take that job. No audible voice. There wasn't even a still, small voice. We would have been happy to have that, at least. No, there was just this inner peace, this inner witness, that we were supposed to sell our house and move to the Kansas City area. A little note here: This was so different from how God had led us in previous times, and yet, I think it is how God leads His children a lot of the time. Just by His peace, just by a "knowing" inside you. It's not based on what things look like in the natural. It's not a pros and con list of the good and bad things about the decision at hand. No, it's just what I would call an inner witness.
So, finally we sat down and said, "We know we're supposed to do this. We want a more dramatic sign from the Lord, but this is what He is giving us. His peace." You really can't go wrong if you follow His peace. So, we decided that Jeremy would take the job managing that store in Lenexa, and we would move there.
Here is what is so funny. During that month while we were deciding if we were going to take that job or not, Rusty would talk to Jeremy about the Lenexa store. He really wanted Jeremy to move and manage it. One day they were talking and Rusty said, "I know you just bought that house in Broken Arrow, and I know wives. I'm sure your wife doesn't want to move to the Kansas City area and leave that pretty new house."
Jeremy assured him that I wasn't like that at all, and that I would never make my decision based on the fact that we had just bought a home. Rusty was unconvinced. "No," he said, "I know wives. They don't want to leave a house they just bought and move to another one. And, they especially don't want to go from owning a house to renting again. So, you make sure and tell your wife that we will write a new house into your moving package. If you decide to take that job, we will include a down payment and the closing costs for a new home comparable to what you are living in now. That will be part of the moving package. You make sure to tell her that."
Well, Jeremy did tell me, but it didn't have anything to do with our decision to move or not move! :) Praise the Lord, though! What a blessing that was to us! God is just so good!
Besides the fact that we had never really wanted to buy a house, I had definitely never wanted to sell one either! That didn't sound like fun at all. We hadn't lived in that house very long, and we decided it would be best if we sold it ourselves, without a realtor. Now, Jeremy was traveling back and forth to Lenexa by this time, and I was at home during the week by myself with the kids. We were concerned about how we were going to show our house to potential buyers, since Jeremy didn't want me to be alone with people we didn't even know. So, we decided either people would have to come see it on the weekend, or my dad, who lives in Broken Arrow, would have to come over when people came to see the house.
That was the plan, but we ended up not needing it! On the Saturday we were putting out the "For Sale By Owner" sign, an older couple drove by and wanted to see the house. I can't remember the details of how this all happened, but I do remember that they came and looked at the house. They walked through it, told Jeremy they wanted to buy it with cash, and then they did. So, that was that. We hired someone to help us close on the deal, and the house was sold. Wow! It was amazingly easy and fast! They didn't even have inspections done since we had just had them done so recently.
So, the move was set for the summer of 1999! We just had to find a house to buy in the Kansas City area, and that turned out to be a far more difficult process for us than selling our house! Isn't it something that I had told the Lord we would leave that house in Broken Arrow any time He wanted us to and it ended up to be not even a year later? I never would have thought that! But, looking back, we could see how perfectly it all worked out that we had bought that house, even though we only lived in it for less than a year. If we hadn't bought that home, we would have still been renting, and I don't think Rusty would have been as apt to include the down payment and closing cost for a new home into Jeremy's moving package. He may have, because God can work things out, but it seemed like he wouldn't have! Thank you, Lord, for always knowing the perfect thing that we should do, even when we don't! Yep, you can never go wrong when you find out what God wants you to do, and do that!
No comments:
Post a Comment