We had our home on the market for a couple of months this spring. We watched a lot of HGTV so my wife and I were – of course – staging experts.
We even had a little bit of curb appeal. Except for one patch of dead grass where there used to be a tree. One big brown circle of ugly. We re-seeded the spot last year, but it apparently didn’t take.
We were preparing to sell our house and there was one ugly spot that we felt could hold things up. The buyer would say…
“I love the house! It is completely perfect… but, I can’t buy it… because of the big brown circle of ugly in the front yard”.
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| A "Spray Tan" for Your Lawn |
We could not take the chance of that happening. So, we did what any normal person would do. We spray-painted that ugly spot green.It did not match the rest of the grass. It was just too bright to be believed that it was natural grass. So I spray-painted it more. I used black spray paint this time. Better…. but still not great.
Someone would want to buy the house after that, right? The grass is greener and whatnot.
Sometimes we believe we would be better off in someone’s life. If you only had a house like Bill. If you could just drive a car like Sally has. If you had Tim’s job, you would not have these problems. Bill’s house needs a new roof and the foundation is crumbling. Sally’s car lost most of its value when she drove it off the lot and she can barely afford the payments. Tim’s employer is threatening lay-offs and he never sees his family.
The grass is deceptively green. Wash off the spray paint and voila… big brown circle of ugly.
Things are not always what they seem, but that’s not even the point. It is not a sin to want “nice” things. However, it is a sin to covet – or yearn to posses – someone else’s stuff.
The reward for keeping up with the Jones’ is a big ugly pile of debt and a giant hole that could never be filled up with stuff. If the desires of our heart are merely temporary, so too will be our reward.
Oh, and we took our house off the market. We realized our grass was green enough for our family.
Bob:
ReplyDeleteI loved this one! Spray painting the grass sounds like one of the crazy things I would have done. LOL.
What's wrong with having "enough"? People nowadays just want bigger & better and then when they get it, they want bigger better than the new thing.
My mobile home may not be much, but it's mine. This woman walked in it right after we bought it and in a snide voice said, "Oh, I like your TRAILER." Well, you know what? Her house might have been bigger and fancier than mine, but last year the bank foreclosed on her house. Had she "settled" for "enough" instead of having to have the fancy house, maybe they could have kept their home.
Your post was awesome!!