Doorbells, Bedknobs and a Broomstick

I always thought houses with doorbells had all the frills because when I was growing up, the house we lived in had a broken doorbell. 

One Halloween when I was about four or five, it shorted out as neighborhood trick-or-treaters pressed it too hard and it got stuck. 

I actually think that doorbell was under some sort of a ghoulish spell since on rare random nights through the years, it would ring of its own accord. We'd go to the door but there'd be no one there.  

It spooked my sister and me every time it did it. 

When guests came to our house they would apologize to my parents for banging on the door and tell them the doorbell wasn’t working. 

Oh yeah we know, my mother would wave off their remarks. Since my dad wasn’t very handy and he was unconcerned about a broken doorbell, it was never fixed all the years we lived there.

When my sister and I moved into our first apartment after college, I felt I was living in luxury since we had a doorbell. 

And when my new townhouse’s doorbell was broken, my handyman told me to go to Home Depot and choose a new one and he fixed it in five minutes flat. 

I was astonished. Who knew it was that easy? 

All those years I thought a broken doorbell was unfixable.

For far too many years I’ve tried to overhaul some things that just don’t seem to be fixable about myself. 

Attitudes, habits, mindsets, reactions, opinions. 

{Maybe you’d like to fix some of these too?} 

Just this week, I was irritated about an unexpected work assignment that took a half day to complete and put me behind in my deadlines. 

I got exasperated by the twentieth email from a coworker who critiqued the way I wrote an article. I said frustratingly unkind words about her to everyone who happened to be around me. 

After helping a friend update her Twitter profile, I was annoyed by her text with more questions on technology that I didn’t really know the answer to. 

{Does she think I’m Google, for pete’s sake?}

I might as well have taken my pointy black hat from my cubicle hook and ridden my broomstick around the office. 

None of my responses were remotely holy. All of my reactions were steeped in selfishness.

Despite my best intentions and my good morning prayers to God when I get out of bed, I can’t make much progress and I find myself once again giving up, resigned to never see growth. 

I wonder how I can ever be that new woman I so aspire to be with all my faulty flaws fixed.

But I wonder if instead of focusing on what I need to fix, I should instead consider who.

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. - Heb. 3:1

I can focus on all that needs fixed in me, or I can fix my eyes on the one who patiently awaits my presence at his side for me to follow his lead in my life. 

I can meditate on the words of God that do the transforming, chiseling and softening to make me more of the woman God sees me to be.

And I can keep trying, ever willing to conform myself to the example he brilliantly set for us.

It doesn’t mean I’ll magically become nicer and all my faults will disappear into thin air, but I'm realizing that God is working in me according to his purposes for me. 

I know God doesn’t see us as lost causes. He sees us as all we could be but just haven't quite become yet. 

That is his gift of grace to us.

I’m not sure I feel the same way about doorbells today that I once did. 

Now when I hear my doorbell ring, I know it’s probably the UPS man since a friend or family member would have sent me a text first to let me know they were coming by. 

But I think doorbells make a comeback every Halloween, when they're put to good use by trick-or-treaters. It's not really one of my favorite holidays, but my niece and nephew love it so I'll head over to their house to admire their costumes.

And between you and me, I don't really mind that I'm not home to hear the doorbell ring.

I'm having coffee with my friend Holley Gerth at Coffee for your Heart. There are more posts to read there from my blogger friends. Click the image and come on over!