The Joy of Finishing

 

 

Peace family, when was the last time you’ve worked on a long-standing project that was well worth it?

I haven’t been able to talk about it on this blog or on the air, because it’s been a surprise, but for more than a year, I’ve been working on a quilt for a friend as a high-school-graduation/going-to-college gift. It’s finally finished, and when I gave it to my friend, she loved it!

Peace family, this was a hard, expensive, time-consuming project. It took months to find and collect the right fabric; every piece of fabric refers to a special memory from my friendship with my friend. I realized that my original pattern wouldn’t work with the fabric that I had, so I switched patterns and did a lot of math! Friends and acquaintances didn’t always understand the vision that I had for the quilt, and questioned my fabric choices. The second pattern that I used, I had to alter it for the size that I wanted. Then, it took weeks for me to cut out all of the fabric, and weeks to piece it together. There were also several other unforeseen obstacles, like the store running out of a specific kind of fabric I needed, which I then had to order off of the internet. I also had to rent a large, long-arm machine several times in order to do the quilting, and it wasn’t always available. Plus, during one of my sessions, a lightning storm knocked a tree over onto the store’s power-line, and cut off all of the electricity!

So, what am I saying with all of this? We all have ongoing, long-term projects in our lives, and other people don’t always see the value of them. Many of our projects are costly and involve sacrifices and discomfort. Some of our projects delight us most of the time, but frustrate or discourage us at other times. Don’t give up! So many large, difficult projects are so worth it!

What long-term projects are you working on right now? As one worker to another, I can tell you, “Eventually, it will get finished!” Enjoy it, be faithful, and keep up the good work, Peace family!