Making Room

I am in the middle of a house upgrade, and there was one piece I kept circling back to every time I made a decision, my dining set. It is in very good condition, which is exactly why I kept wrestling with whether to let it go. Part of me wanted to hold on to it and another part of me knew that if I was going to do this upgrade, I needed to go all in. So I made the decision. I sold it.

A woman came to pick it up on Saturday, and once her truck pulled away, I stood in my dining room and looked at the empty space where my table used to be. My first thought was not peace, but panic. Did I make the right decision?

For the rest of that day, every time I walked past that room the emptiness hit me a little differently. It was not just a table that was gone. It was every romantic dinner I had shared there with my husband and Sunday dinners with my family. I know it was just a table, but the memories were sewn into the wood of it. Looking at that bare floor, I felt something close to grief. I thought, now I have to start all over.

That is when it hit me. In order to make space for the new, we have to be willing to let go of the old. Letting go is not just a decision you make once. It is a grieving process. You are allowed to mourn what served you, even as you walk toward what is coming.

Pause with me for a moment. Ask yourself if there is something in your life right now that you know needs to go, but you are still standing in the doorway, not ready to let it leave. It might be a mindset, a relationship pattern, or a version of yourself you have outgrown but have not officially said goodbye to yet. Sit with that for a second before you keep reading.

Scripture Reflection

"And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles." ~ Mark 2:22 (KJV)

Think about what would have happened if I had tried to bring my new dining set in while the old one was still sitting there. It would not have fit. It would have been chaos, furniture crammed against furniture, no room to actually enjoy the new. The truth is, the old set had to leave before the new one could even come in.

Some blessings are waiting on our willingness to empty out first.

Heart Truths

That empty dining room became a mirror for something much bigger than furniture.

We cannot make space for the new until we let go of the old, whether that old thing is living in our homes, our marriages, our mothering, or our walk with God.

We want new intimacy in our marriage, but we are still carrying the old offense we never released.

We want to mother with more patience, but we are still operating from the old exhaustion we never named.

We want a deeper walk with God, but we are still making room for the old distractions that keep our hands too full to receive anything new.

Often times, God is not just asking us to let go of the thing, He is asking us to let go of anything that would keep the new from fitting.

Sometimes obedience does not look like receiving the new. It looks like clearing space for it.

Letting go is not failure. It is preparation. Grief and growth can share the same room, just not forever, only for a season.

Loving Well in Action

Here is how you can begin making room this week:

1. Name the thing. Be specific about what old mindset, habit, or pattern you sense God asking you to release. Write it down instead of letting it float around as a vague feeling.

2. Give yourself permission to grieve it. If the old thing served you for a season, it is normal to feel the loss of it, even while you know letting go is right.

3. Clear one physical space this week that reflects the internal shift you are making. Sometimes tending to the outer space helps the inner release feel real.

4. Speak the new season out loud, either in prayer or to your person, so you are not carrying the transition in silence.

A LoveNote

This is your reminder. You do not have to have the new space figured out before you are allowed to let go of the old one. The emptiness is not the end of the story. It is simply the part where the room is being prepared for something you have not seen yet. Let it be empty for a little while. Let it be sacred. What is coming next needs the room you are making right now.

Your LoveNote Challenge

Think about your own version of that empty dining room, the thing you are holding onto out of comfort, memory, or fear of what comes next. Now think about who is on the other side of that release with you.

• Maybe it is your husband, and this is the season to release an old wound so you can pour into the marriage you actually want.

• Maybe it is your child, and it is time to release an old expectation so you can meet them where they actually are.

• Maybe it is a friend, or maybe it is simply you, and the note needs to go to the woman in the mirror who has been carrying more than her share.

Write a short love note to that person, or to yourself, naming what you are releasing and what you are choosing to make room for instead.

Finish With Intention

This is a new month, and September is asking something of you, not perfection, not a finished plan, but simply a willingness.

Walk past your own empty room this week without panicking over the space. Let it be empty. Let it be quiet. Let it be the holy pause between what was and what is coming. God is not confused by your empty spaces. He specializes in filling them.

Make room. The new is already on its way.

Grab your copy of Love Him Well: The Daily Love Note Kit, made to help you love with intention every single day. Find it here: www.dailylovenotekit.com