I’m back! I took off for a few days while we worked on drying the basement after the recent flood on Thursday. Stick with me because I plan to catch up as quickly as I can.

Before diving completely back into the series, I feel compelled to share a little more of the experience. As I spent countless hours moving water-logged boxes and sucking water out with a shop vac, my mind often turned to prayer. They were random, not well thought out, and at times repetitious, but they were frequent and heart-felt. I also started counting my blessings, as the old hymn puts it:

• It wasn’t sewage water; it was clear groundwater.
• It could have been higher/deeper.
• The box of pictures left carelessly on the floor (by me) could have been two feet to the side where it would have been ruined.
• Nothing of consequence was destroyed.
• The friends with the shop vac and dehumidifier might have missed my Facebook post.
• Another friend sent out emergency messages and got people to help us within 10 hours.
• Twelve other people showed up to help move wet furniture and boxes upon boxes of books to higher ground.
• At least six of those twelve stayed for several hours to help clean up as much water as they could using a total of four shop vacs.
• My husband’s past experience cleaning carpets helped him know what needed to be done, resulting in renting four air movers and two dehumidifiers to move and dry the air as much as possible.
• Two more friends who showed up on Saturday morning to continue to wet vac.
• Ten people came over on Monday night to rip out the padding from under the carpet and wash the walls with a disinfecting cleanser.
• Friends volunteering to bring us meals over the next week to relieve some of the burden.
• Finally tonight, feeling like the immediate crisis is over after a carpet cleaning company came in and did a thorough extraction, applying an industrial strength antimicrobial to kill bacteria and stop the growth of mold or mildew.

I’m thankful that I’ve been able to see the positive side of things for the most part (not that this has been easy). So what does all this have to do with kingdom crushing?

I had to laugh last night as the group was cleaning the walls. There really wasn’t much left to hide in my house. My messes, those closed-door areas of the house that are unsuitable for guests to see, were all exposed. All the furniture and furnishings that were in the basement have been crammed into every corner of the upstairs. Note these two different angles looking into my dining room – yikes, right?

So, if we’re talking about me treating my house like a kingdom, that’s been/being crushed. And what’s crazy is that I have so much enjoyed having so many people in and out of the house these past 5 days. It didn’t matter that we couldn’t even get six people seated on chairs in the living room or that my decorations weren’t pin worthy (most of the decorations were shoved in a box in the dining room anyway). At one point, I thought I should try to find some food to serve them, but then realized that wasn’t what they were here for or expecting.

Judging by the differences between my husband and myself, I suspect this post will resonate more with the women reading it than any men. Kingdom crushing can be the freeing of expectations, even the ones we put on ourselves to present a perfect house. Don’t let it be a flood that drives that lesson home to you.

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Continue reading with Day 5: Sit in the hard places.
If you missed Day 3, you can catch up here.