Feeling great.... for a moment

The picture above shows the outcome of my toilet fixing experience today - CRACKED!

I have never been a big "house project" guy. In fact, I have many memories of wanting to climb into a hole whenever my Dad would call me out to garage to put anything together. I mean ANYTHING.

Laurie and I bought our first house after our wedding 6+ years ago. I put my best effort at a variety of projects. My most rewarding moment was installing a garage door opener (later, it almost collapsed and smashed our cars). I learned a lot from a neighbor who demonstrated great patience with me and he taught me some basic things.

Years later (now), I am a home owner again and I have been taking on all kinds of projects the past few days. I have actually enjoyed all of them and my confidence has been growing every day. Today, I decided to fix the toilet in the girls' bathroom and I took on the task with a sure plan. In fact, I replaced the entire inside and everything was working perfectly.

I felt great...

until I tightened the handle with one more turn of the wrench and then the entire back part cracked and water spilled out everywhere.

I went from a super high to a super low.

I called one of the men who helped me earlier in the week for advice. He encouraged me by saying, "Jeff, we all have to start somewhere. At least you are trying, there is a lot to say for that. You will never make that same mistake again and you should see the crack as a positive and not as a negative."

A great word from a wise man. In many ways, he described discipleship with those words. As followers of Christ, we all have to start somewhere. I know that I have "cracked many toilets" in my faith journey and I'm sure that I will crack a few more in the next week as I start at Maple Valley Presbyterian.

Anyone else have some "home-improvement" stories to share?