A House of Flies.

Last year Magnolia was not the most fun place to live. I think back to the pictures we took as a house last year and how they were a mask that we put on to the outside world. They made it look like we had our act together, that we were all best friends, and that we are insanely hot (that one has been true the whole time). But in reality the only things that within the walls of our house were hurt and loneliness. Of course there were good days where this wasn't the case, but for the most part it was. Mag was devoid of Jesus, devoid of community, and devoid of true friendship.

Thankfully my roommates and I are pretty awesome people and cam to the realization that our first year in our house was miserable. We had more bad things to say about that year than we did good. We realized that the way we had been living was not glorifying to God and not honoring the incredible blessing we had been given of living with 6 other girls that were also crazy about Him for just a few short years. We wasted year one, but we sure did learn a lot from it.

At our pre-classes starting house assembly we came up with the one idea that has been the single best thing that has ever happened to this house of magnolia flies: hang out in common areas. If you're home, just be out where you run into everyone else. Do your homework at the kitchen table, read your book in the living room, watch a TV on the couch - even if you have headphones at least you're still out there. This one little adjustment (and a whole lot of Jesus) has transformed our sweet home in the past two weeks. We see each other more, we know more about each others lives, and it is so much more easy to take spontaneous trips to Kroger or Willard hill to watch the sunset. It's awesome.

There used to be a sign hanging above our couch that said "How good and pleasant it is when sisters live together in unity. -Psalm 133:1" and its funny to me because we looked at that sign every day last year, and I don't think we ever really understood or contemplated what it meant. It just went in one ear and out the other. We lived in division, we hurt each other without knowing it and let frustrations brew, we didn't live life together, and the live we did live wasn't all the pleasant because many of us (myself included) avoided home because it was unpleasant.

There's a song that my mom likes to quote that says, "maybe your blessings come in rain drops," and another one out there that says something to the effect of its not the sunshine that makes you grow, but rather the rain (I usually really good with song lyrics and every time I hear this one I'm like oh-man-I'm-gonna-remember-that-now and then I don't. Gosh dang it.). Unfortunately/fortunately for our house we had to go through a years worse of steady drizzle with occasional down pours to figure out what it really means to pursue the Lord and each other in our house. My prayer for this last year with all 7 of us together is that as we continue to fall even deeper in love with Jesus we will be able to more deeply love each other and experience the true joy that accompanies that.

Praise the Lord that no matter what he makes all things work together for our good!

Not gonna lie, we're some pretty happy and gosh darn cute flies. So incredibly thankful for the laughter that echoes from the walls of our home because of these girls.