{"id":378,"date":"2012-02-10T13:42:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/?p=378"},"modified":"2012-02-10T13:42:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-10T13:42:00","slug":"building-a-doll-house-and-so-it-begins-chapter-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/?p=378","title":{"rendered":"Building a Doll House: And So It Begins &#8211; Chapter 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div><b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%;\"><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">You\u2019ve seen these books. \u201cWhat I Learned From God While\u2026\u201d Fill in the blank. Quilting, gardening, cooking, brewing tea, and the list could go on. Well here\u2019s my version. \u201cWhat I Learned From God While Building a Doll House.\u201d I believe that God taught me some lessons during this process and I would like to take the opportunity to relate with you what God desires for each of us and for what He desires in our homes.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">We first got the idea of building a doll house for our granddaughter when she saw a doll house in a toy store and was mesmerized by it. We thought it would be a fun and exciting process, so we began our journey.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">We started at the hobby shop. Standing in front of half a dozen fully built houses was inspiring. We decided upon one and asked to see it closer. The store manager lifted it off the shelf and we inspected it. Yes, this was the perfect house for Joy. Along the wall were accessories: furniture, knick knacks, fireplaces, flooring, wall paper, lights\u2026the list could go on, but you understand. Then the manager asked if we were thinking of adding electric for the house to have lights. \u201cOf course,\u201d we said. \u201cI quit before I got to that point,\u201d replied the manager. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot more work than most people realize. I hope you\u2019re giving yourself plenty of time to complete this project,\u201d he added. It was at that point we began to understand the enormous task we had thought to undertake.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">We purchased the house kit and a few accessories and left the hobby shop with our heads spinning.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">Think a moment about the creation of the world, the universe, and man. Can you imagine what Jesus and the Holy Spirit thought when God said, <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">\u201cLet us make mankind in our image, in our likeness\u2026\u201d<\/i> (Genesis 1:26). Were there questions? Maybe opposition? I don&#8217;t think so. They all agreed to the plan. And I\u2019m sure they didn\u2019t have the overwhelming feeling Mason and I had at this undertaking, but none the less, they knew what it meant. What it would cost. Rejection, pain, inconsiderate words and actions on man\u2019s part, and death.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">Oh yes, creation was the beginning of the fall, but there\u2019s so much more! Through the resurrection of Jesus, we have the opportunity to accept the grace offered by God and along with it, the hope for a future with God for eternity. <\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">That first step into God\u2019s grace may seem daunting, almost impossible. And on our own, it is. We can only understand His forgiveness when we submit completely to Him. And through His love and strength, we are able to overcome any <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">\u201ctrouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword\u2026In all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.\u201d<\/i> (Romans 8:35, 37)With Him on our side, we have nothing to fear.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">This is the first part of many chapters in this story. The \u201cchapters\u201d will be intertwined with other writings on my blog and together, will be a completed work. Join me on this journey. Enjoy the process and the finished project. We did and still are.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">Grace and peace be yours in abundance,<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;\">Donna<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve seen these books. \u201cWhat I Learned From God While\u2026\u201d Fill in the blank. Quilting, gardening, cooking, brewing tea, and the list could go on. Well here\u2019s my version. \u201cWhat I Learned From God While Building a Doll House.\u201d I believe that God taught me some lessons during this process and I would like to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,22,14,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asking-god","category-believing-god","category-seeking-god","category-trusting-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}