Purging Negativity

Since my blog deletion over at HSB and remembering I had saved years of my life thru blogbooker I have spent some time looking over the past year–What kept coming to my attention was ‘purging’–Seems I did alot of that this past year–I purged belongings, critters, friends and yes even family–the other ‘theme’ in my life–for lack of a better word–was negativity–I seemed to have purged lots of negativity from my life which is how the friends/family fit in–Don’t get me wrong I love my family, but many are just very negative people–seems they never have a nice or positive thing to say about anything or anyone–I decided months ago to let those people go–It was hard–It was a change–but one I am glad I made–Ridding ones life of negative influences is very hard at times–some of those people may be a significant part of your life daily–but they can destroy you–They can cause you question your path in life, your faith, your marriage–EVERYTHING–When times are hard they are the ones that do not encourage and lift you up–they tear you down and tell you what you are doing is wrong–

In my case it all ended when a few months ago before we got our well put in(we were without running water for 18 months)I was struggling–It is not easy to haul water daily for 18 months–I was down and just needed someone to talk to and I guess to have encouraging words–I was met not with encouraging words but words of negativity–

I was told it would be easier if we just let the land go back and it was stupid to continue to fight this battle–I was devastated–Had my faith in the Lord not been what it was and knowing in my heart the Lord led us here it would have been easy to just give up and wallow in my self pity–But I knew the Lord led us here, and in the midst of that trial were many lessons to be learned–We have turned this place into our little slice of heaven on earth–I love my land, I love that we took nothing but dirt, rocks and trees and have made it a homestead–We lived here for 11 weeks with no electricity–there had never been any here–there had never been a phone line, or water–never a house–never a critter(other than wildlife)–nothing–We have in 2 years went from dirt,rock and trees to having a home(albeit small) we have electricity, a well, a home phone, fencing, fruit trees and plants, a garden spot, a yard and more blessings that we could count in days!–We did this by the sweat of brow–no one built it for us–Nothing was handed to us–we have worked and worked very hard–We are proud of what we have accomplished even though it was HARD getting here–Everything we have except our land is paid for–We paid cash for our little home!–God has been good to us!

Had we listened to all that negativity, we would never have known the satisfying feeling of building something from the ground up–we would have never been so grateful to have running water or electricity or a garden–We would have never learned the lesson of leaning on and trusting in the Lord in ways you could have never imagined–We would never have known that we can survive in the face of disaster–We would have never known what it is like to draw near to your loved ones in times of extreme hardship–we would have never known some of the wonderful God, fearing people that we have met–We would have never known what it means to live simply, to live consciously and live deliberately–
Negativity begats negativity–nothing good comes from it–I am so thankful that the Lord showed me to purge the negative and to focus on the postive–Not that this is always an easy thing to do–I am after all only human–

::Until Next Time::
The Deliberate Homesteader