New Experiences...Hankuna Mata!!

17. What was the last new thing you tried? The journal prompt of 17 February 2014. The new thing I tried on this day was sanding.

My first experience with sanding with an electric sander and I might add without my husband’s supervision <woot-woot>. Don’t panic, I had supervision after all I had a p-o-w-e-r tool in my hands. The task at hand was my friend Rebekah’s dresser. The dresser belonged to her late father and she was going to chunk it! My heart hurt hearing that news. I am a daddy’s girl and I would never chunk anything that belongs to my late father that was in my possession. I would not have it and I could not let her; so I had the 17th off thanks to President’s Day. So with p-o-w-e-r tool in my hand, face masks in a baggy and with the confidence to save the world by refurbishing this dresser my dear husband dropped me off at Rebekah’s house. I am not sure if he laughed when he drove off or not. Since he knows me and my handy skills he probably did, but I still love him.

The before

If it were up to me to complete this project solo, I would have spent the day on Google reading about Sanding Tips, checking Facebook, then watching Sanding Tutorials on YouTube, then checking Facebook, then...you get the idea. I would then get up and find that my husband had already accomplished what I was trying to learn how to do; it is a pretty good trick. The only thing is I don’t learn anything in the process, well I do, but I don’t get to act on it. Enter my sanding mentor Rebekah. These are the things I learned about sanding:

• You don’t really need a mask since the sander has a little bag that catches all the dust particles, but if you have the sniffles and it is windy outside the mask will catch your sniffles and you won’t have to stop every few seconds to wipe your nose….ewww I know. 
• It takes time to see the progress.

Lion King - Hakuna Mata showed up on our wood! It was a miracle!
Did you know Hakuna Mata is a Swahili phrase that translates "no worries"

• When sanding off layered spray paint and latex paint, it is okay to go against the grain to get the paint started to chip off, but then you have to go back and sand it with a finer sand disc so that “it is as smooth as a baby’s butt” as Rebekah says.

Dresser was complete with Sharpie pens and stickers too.

• There is a button on my husband’s sander that you can push and the sander will keep sanding and you don’t have to hold the button down the entire time, my thumb was ever oh so thankful after hours of holding it.
• That gunk builds up on the sand discs and periodically you have to stop and knock them off. 
• While it is not that fun you can always add squats or tighten your tummy to maximize the time and health benefits.

See! I learned quite a bit about wood grain, gunk buildups on sanding discs, and sanders. Just so you know, my sanding mentor, said we did a great job sanding and accomplished much, even though I ended up with a sanding headache.

Through the sawdust God was faithful as He always is to take my every day encounters and bring spiritual application to my life. The dresser was dirty and beat up from all the tornado debris and at first glance one might even call it junk, but the owner, knew it had value that you could not see. So the owner made a choice to take time to make it beautiful. It would have been easier to throw it away, but now with time, elbow grease, and a bit of “pruning” if you will, it will be made new and useable.

A work in progress....a later post...we will give the big reveal

Just like that old, dirty dresser, before Christ, we too, were dirty and beat up from sin and the world, but our owner knew we had value even though we couldn’t see it or others might not have seen it, but He did. He takes the time to clean us up, and while it isn’t comfortable He goes against the grain putting us in situations that challenge and hurt, not to be mean but through it He is knocking off the layers of scum we get ourselves in to and training us to rely fully on Him. And over time we and those around us see progress as He makes our lives a beautiful and living testimony of His grace. The button on the sander reminded me that when I stay in tune with Him, He takes over and takes care of everything, I just come along for the ride; but when I take control and hold down the button, I get weary and tired. While the “pruning” or “conforming” process we go through is not fun or exciting, we can add spiritual exercises like faith and trust and through that we will maximize spiritual benefits that bring surpassing value to our lives. So that is what the Lord showed me as I stood and sat sanding hours on end, He is always faithful to show me something all except for the masks to catch the sniffles there was nothing spiritual about that.

Something else new...Rebekah's Taxi Cab Service

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Ecclesiastes 3:11 - Now that for sure is Hakuna Mata!