Finding Joy in an Empty Nursery

Finding Joy in an Empty Nursery

Joy is a Decision

How can one find joy when your heart longs for something so sweet? How can one find joy when you’ve waited days…months…years to fill the quietness and emptiness of your home?

It begins with the way you choose to be in that moment! Finding joy in the situation that you are in is a decision.

I know I have faith in God. I know that He can do anything I could ever ask or think…and much more! But how do I show God that I know He is able? When Blake and I had been trying for several years to conceive, I heard a preacher speaking about putting your faith into action and it changed me.

He told of a story of a woman in his congregation that so desperately wanted a child that she was not able to have. He told of how he suggested to her to step out of her boundaries of what she was comfortable in and do something drastic. He told her she should put an infant car seat in the backseat of her vehicle to show God that she knew He was able. And that if anyone saw the car seat and asked if she had a child, to say “No, but I am expecting one on the way!”

I thought to myself “Isn’t that a bit much? What would people think of someone putting a car seat in their vehicle with no child?” The woman did as the pastor suggested and she believed that God would fill that car seat. And guess what, soon after she had a baby to fill that very seat! She had the faith, and she put action to that faith, showing God that she knew He could.

Putting Faith into Action

So I began praying about it. I prayed about how I could put my faith into action. I went that next week and bought a sweet little outfit for the baby that we wanted. As the weeks went by I knew there was more we were supposed to do. I talked with my husband and we agreed to do something in preparation for the child we knew that only God could give.

So we set up an empty nursery. We put in a rocking chair that I already had in the living room, a crib that I had borrowed from a friend who no longer needed it, a few cute little baby items that we had collected over the years, and prayed. I felt silly doing it because we had no baby to speak of. But I had to get past my pride and get to the point that I was willing to do anything to show God that I knew He could. James 2:17 says, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone.” We can have faith, but if we do not put action to it, the Word of God tells me it is dead.

Faith + Action = The Miraculous.

Every time I would walk into that room I would feel liberation in knowing that this is the way I had chosen to find joy in this situation. I felt joy when I walked into that room. I felt like it was a step closer to what God had planned.

Experiencing the Unexpected

Then reality hit us like a brick in the face. I became pregnant and just a few weeks later had a miscarriage. For a little while, I could not walk into that room. I could not face my crushed dreams of holding my own child. I soon got mad enough that I took the entire room apart and got everything out of the house and into the shop.

I didn’t want to see anything that resembled the joy of having a child. Yes, even though I knew God could, the reality was painful. Why was this so hard? Why did this happen to me?

I soon came to terms with what had happened and allowed God to begin a new work in me. A year later, I felt like I was ready to reassemble the nursery again and begin putting my faith back into action. It did not happen right away, but God proved Himself faithful!

Hebrews 11: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

How long we diligently sought after the Lord’s will for our lives. We had the faith and we pushed past our pride and doubt and created a sweet little nursery in preparation for what we wanted to receive. God saw, and He rewarded us with the most precious little bundle to call our own. I tell about the wonderful way we found out about our miracle in My Miraculous 11 Week Pregnancy.

Not only did He give us one desire of our hearts, but He gave us several.

Stepping Out of the Comfort Zone

During the second time that we put the nursery together, we had been praying for a new home. We prayed and told the Lord what we would enjoy in a home and wrote things down that we both would like. To put faith into action, we began looking at homes knowing that at the time we did not have the finances to buy anything.

One day I felt like God was telling me that I should start packing up my home. I told Blake and he said that he had felt the same thing. We asked God for confirmation, and we received it. Late one night we had both gotten prepared for bed and was lying in bed, both of us feeling unsettled.

I looked over at Blake and said, “I can’t stand this, I have got to get a box and pack just one thing.” He said, “Me too!” Now, don’t call me crazy, but you can call me radical. You see, when you get desperate enough for a change and start heeding the voice of the Lord, He’s going to take you to places that are uncomfortable. But just go with it.

We got up, got a box and packed one item from each room of our small home. We didn’t feel liberty and we didn’t feel over-joyed by what we were doing. We felt stupid. We questioned ourselves as to why we were packing up our home when we didn’t have another one to go to.

We taped up the box and prayed, then we felt liberated! In the few weeks after that night, we continued to pack up the house, believing that God was going to do something. We had even bought something small for our new home that we were going to move in.

One day a friend of mine wanted to come over to visit and have coffee. I almost told her no because our home was packed in boxes and I had no idea how I was going to tell her what we were doing. But I invited her to come anyway. When she walked in and saw the boxes she asked if we had bought a new house and had not said anything. I told her that we had not. I then told her why my house was in the state that it was in. She looked at me and said “Well that’s great! What a way to get God’s attention.”

We set a certain day that we thought would be appropriate in finding a home and move. That day came and went and we were still in the same place that we began, except living out of boxes. But I no longer felt silly. I felt that we had shifted something in the atmosphere by our actions.

So here we were living out of boxes and had a room with an empty nursery and nothing to show for either. But we would still choose joy! We did what we knew to do and went on with our lives. We felt that we had done what God had asked us to do.

God Rewarded our Faithfulness

Then the day came a few years later that we felt we were both ready to seriously look for a new home. We had worked very hard and had our finances in a position where we could afford moving to a bigger home. It was during this time that God decided to show out.

We were pre-approved for a large sum that we had no idea we could even get. Because of our good credit scores, we were qualified for a great interest rate. Even though we were qualified for a certain amount, we did not want to spend that much. So, we set a personal budget of how much we wanted to spend on a new house. I wanted one thing and Blake wanted another in a home and it was difficult for us to find something.

We searched for 4 months. During that time, we found out that we were expecting our miracle baby! We finally found a home that fit both of wishes, and we paid exactly the personal budget we had set. We moved into that new home and quickly set up the nursery for the child that was soon to arrive.

Our little man came 2 weeks later. And that item we bought years before as an act of faith is now in our new home. And that’s not all, a month later after moving into our new home, Blake received a good raise at his job!

Blake and I taking maternity pictures in front of our new home.

James 2:24 “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”

I encourage you to start your act of faith. If it is a child that you long for, a new home, a new vehicle, better finances, healing, whatever it may be, start putting your faith into action and watch God work in His timing. Regardless of your circumstances, I pray that you would still choose to find joy in all things.

There is joy to be found in an empty nursery!

Our sweet boy’s perfect nursery

My Miraculous 11 Week Pregnancy and A Beautiful Childbirth tell about how when God does something, He does it perfectly!

Much Love,