Well Kept

Written: May 13, 2021

Phew! It’s been a crazy few months since my last blog post. We closed on and moved into our new house. A second move within six months was a bit exhausting, but we are very happy with our new house and feel incredibly blessed to have found one in this seller’s housing market.

We moved to a well-kept neighborhood that instantly reminded me of going back in time. Picture women powerwalking in the road like on The Goldbergs. Moving to a neighborhood where people take care of their houses and yards has put into perspective how we takes care of things. Don’t get me wrong, we aren’t naturally slobs who trash our yards, but we definitely used our previous neighbor’s long grass as an excuse to not cut ours as quickly. We all tend to do that with other things in our lives too, don’t we? I am not as bad at –insert issue here- as –insert person who has it worse- so I am doing okay.  As much as my human side wants to give in and make myself feel better about slacking on important things, I know it isn’t best in the long run.

I want to clarify that this is not about appearances. It is about respecting what God has given us. Taking care of possessions show we appreciate the items we are entrusted with. I know we’ve all seen a house where someone clearly doesn’t care at all. It’s the reason many regulated neighborhoods don’t allow renting out your house to other people. The stigma is (and is usually not far off) that people don’t take care of rented items as well as they take care of the items they own. 

Thinking about all this, I am working on respecting what I am given without the peer pressure of those around me to keep me motivated. But in the meantime, it is serving me well to have that pressure there. This same mentality can apply in other aspects of our life. If there is something you want to be better at, it helps to surround yourself with people who possess those qualities. Are you trying to be more positive? Work on spending more time with people who are positive. Do you want to be more patient and kind? Spend time with someone who already exhibits those qualities.

We’ve heard for years you are most like the 5 people you spend the most time with. And while we all hope to be the kind of person who can be surrounded by houses (or metaphorical houses) that are wrecked while ours is still cared for, most of us will start slacking over time if it doesn’t come natural to us.  I wouldn’t recommend ditching all the flawed people in your life because there will be no one left, but I think we should be intentional and include people we can grow with in our lives.