Your Name: You can call me Violet =) Little bit about you and your
family: How many kids? 4 on earth, one in heaven and maybe one in
the oven
Preferred method of homeschooling? I've been trying to be a
principle approach hs'er, but I haven't quite hit the mark yet. I
do follow their scope and sequence although the philosophy is still
lacking...
Read more HERE

How is it that some people can take a room, fill it with spare parts, old parts, new parts, odd parts, and all kinds of other things and make it beautiful? I have never been able to understand it. I could take the same parts and pieces, arrange them, and have a...garage sale. It just doesn't work for me.

I've studied Better Homes & Gardens for years, dreamed, schemed, plotted and planned, and my house still looks like a collection of yard sale and auction finds, which it is. What's the missing link? If I hang a curtain like the masters do in BH&G, it'd look like a sheet hung with strips of rags instead of the cool curtains they end up with. What am I doing wrong?

I just don't have that magical touch of a decorating master's hand. Some hands create beauty out of chaos, mine create more chaos out of chaos. How I wish I could create an environment that invited people to enter, relax, visit and unwind, but I struggle with keeping the living room presentable enough so my husband doesn't groan when he walks in the door at night!

But just because I don't have a decorator's touch in my home doesn't mean I'm not touched by the Master Decorator. He's willing to decorate my soul if I just give Him access to it. Am I willing for Him to dig through the attic of my life, looking for antique treasures I had tucked away and buried? What about those basement corners in my life? Just because I think something is junk and have it hidden in my basement, doesn't mean He doesn't want to pull it out, touch it up, and add it to my living room, that 'public' part of my life.

God, the Master Decorator, is able to pull all the parts and pieces of my life together, even the seemingly ugly parts, and create a place of comfort, a haven from life's storms. But I need to give Him access to my hiding places. Am I willing to have Him pull out the 'uglies' hidden in my life and create beauty from those? Am I willing to invite people in to see how He has decorated my soul? It means exposure. It means allowing them to see the uglies. But those uglies, once touched by the Master's hand, are not ugly any more, they're worked into the whole and they create a picture and a place of His beauty. If I allow Him access and invite Him to decorate my soul.

Please, Lord, be the Master Decorator in my life and soul. I give You the keys to my attic, basement, closets, shed, and garage--every hiding place in my life. Take these parts, even the ugly ones, and touch them and arrange them to create a place of beauty in me--a place of refreshment and peace. Be the Master Decorator in me.

Patty Wysong is a Christian wife and homeschool mom of 5 who is passionate about wrapping lessons in pretty packages that will point others to God.

Blog: http://pattywysong.blogspot.com/

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