Have you ever had a home where you had to remove wallpaper?  We just moved as most of you know and this house is filled with it!  I have stripped walls for days and am going to be doing it for weeks before it is done, I fear.  I’ve tried all of the tricks and there is nothing that makes it fun or easy.  For that matter, I am thinking I’m going to go to congress soon and order a new law to be put in place.  I don’t think anyone should be able to sell a home without removing all of the wallpaper before it transfers to the new owner.  It’s a simple as that.

I am always thinking about my next blog and what I will write about as I go about my week.  As I was laboring every free minute I had on my wallpaper this week, I thought this is really going to be a boring blog.  I have nothing to write about but wallpaper.  It is my life, it is consuming me and I will be obsessed until the job is done.  I know this about me.  It’s a flaw.  But once I get something I focus on, it becomes an obsession until I accomplish it.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a baptism service at our church.  I always shed tears of joy each time another person chooses to follow Christ and is baptized as an expression of that new life.  It caused me to reflect on the day when I was baptized.  What a glorious day it was. I did it out of obedience never realizing the blessing I would receive in return.  As I came up out of the water, I felt as though I would never be the same.  My old life had been washed away and the new life had begun.  Literally!  I was also reminded of my early days as a Christian and the hard work and dedication involved just to stay on the path so to speak.  I had developed bad habits and a lifestyle that needed to be changed if I were going to be obedient in my newfound faith.

Then my thoughts went back to my walls.  In my warped mind, I started imagining how my walls must have felt being smothered by this horrifically ugly paper for twelve long years.  It may have dreamed of seeing the sunshine, breathing a fresh breath of air and simply being released from the bondage this paper held on it.  As I steamed and scraped, it seemed like some pieces of paper just fell off the wall; no problem there.  However, other pieces shredded into tiny pieces as I pulled and seemed to be extra hard to remove.  I worked diligently all week, steaming, scraping, and tugging, over and over again.  A little at a time, I am beginning to see the walls as the builder created them to be when he built this home twelve years ago.  Ahhhh!  They can breathe again!  Hehe.

My thoughts then returned to those who were baptized and of how their new lives will be similar to that of my walls.  They have been in bondage and sin and now in their new lives they will begin to pull away the layers of the old life so that can finally see the true being God created them to be.  Some areas of their lives will be more easily unpeeled than others.  There will be those things in their past that will want to hang on and actually shred into little pieces as they are being pulled away making it more difficult to be freed from them.

If you are that person, feeling that you’ve still got some layers to unpeel, don’t give up.  Ask the Holy Spirit to give you some extra steam so that you can understand what you have to do to rid yourself of that issue forever.  Even if each piece comes off in shreds, it’s OK.  Each person is different.  God allows us each to move at our own pace as He patiently peels away the layers one by one.

This week as I am steaming and peeling away at my layers on my walls, I’ve decided not to grumble and complain.  Rather, I am going to be praying.  Praying for those who are still struggling with the old life for whatever reason.  I’m going to ask God to remove those things left over from the old life that aren’t pretty while helping my friends find the real beauty underneath.  I pray that His scraping will be gentle but effective and when steam is necessary, I pray that He do whatever it takes to remove this hindrance from their lives.  For having been there, done that, I understand the worth of a little steam here and there to get it out of our lives once and for all!

So for now, wallpaper removal seems like a worthwhile task.  That is, as long as I look at it through God’s eyes and include a lot of prayer!  Be sure to send me a private message at JustTryingToBeABlessing@gmail.com if you have a “layer of the old life” you need to have unpeeled.  I would be glad to add you to my prayer list…I certainly am going to have a lot of time to reflect and pray with this big job ahead!  Have a great week!

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NKJV) “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Philippians 2:14  Do all things without complaining and disputing,

2Corinthians 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.