WHAT'S WRONG WITH OUR WALLPAPER?

USGN article
by Terry Franklin
March 1999

We are going through a process I enjoy about as much as a root canal -- selling our house! The friendly real estate man came over and we sat around the kitchen table talking about how best to market the home. After signing a 100 or so pieces of paper (maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration) he wanted to look around the house to give us tips on things we might change to make our house more desirable to a prospective buyer.

We have lived in this home since we had it built 11 years ago. We had carefully picked all the colors, wallpaper, carpet colors, etc. It is "home" to us. But as Mr. Real Estate walked around our house he would say things like, "That Country Blue wallpaper in the kitchen has to go. That style went out years ago." "You guys have too much furniture. Everything looks cramped. And that beige carpet... you'll probably have to give a carpet allowance to the buyer. It looks 11 years old."

The point to this is: WE NEVER DREAMED THESE ITEMS WOULD BE THOUGHT OF AS NEGATIVE TO A BUYER!! It was then that I realized we had done something I have seen many older people do. Let's hear it for lime-green furniture! And those wall sconces with the plastic flowers in them, and if you're lucky...shag carpet...because that's what was "in" during the late 60's. If they are a bit younger it might be a lot of browns and that beautiful Denny's orange.

But is this stuff bothering them? No siree. It's home to them. But someone else might view these things from a very different perspective.

In our lives we all have blind spots. From time to time it would do us well to take an inventory of, not just colors and carpet, but a moral inventory, some rearranging might be in order...some renewal of the ways we seek and worship the Lord, a perusing of some of the fresh, new ways the wind of the Spirit is blowing in Revival today.

Incidentally, after making the changes at our house, it felt pretty good.

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©1999 Terry & Barbi Franklin.