{"id":12255,"date":"2020-04-18T06:12:31","date_gmt":"2020-04-18T11:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=12255"},"modified":"2020-04-18T06:12:43","modified_gmt":"2020-04-18T11:12:43","slug":"getting-our-house-in-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=12255","title":{"rendered":"Getting Our House in Order"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When my father-in-law was diagnosed with melanoma cancer, the doctors stated, at the most, he\u2019d have only a few months to live. Dad was a strong man of faith (besides an evangelical pastor for over 50 years) and just wouldn\u2019t accept that \u201cdeath\u201d threat. He remembered Isaiah 38:1-7 where Hezekiah, too, was giving a death threat. Isaiah told him that he needed to get \u201chis house in order\u201d because he was going to die. But, Hezekiah prayed: \u201cLord, I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done good in your eyes.\u201d God relented and told Isaiah to tell him He had heard his prayers and will add on 15 years to his life. God did give Hezekiah 15 more years and when Dad prayed for an added 15 more years, God granted him 15 more years \u2013 almost to the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dad had plenty of time to get \u201chis house in order\u201d. And, I took those words seriously since being on this shelter-in-place hiatus. I know there are those of you who were far more impacted than my little world with 24\/7 children at home, businesses at home and others who lost their job altogether. So, please know my heart and prayers go out to those of you who are faced with far more challenges than me. My \u201clittle\u201d rant is little, compared to others. But, please — hear me out!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of my responsibilities came to a screeching halt. Most went online or not at all. That meant I had time \u2013 a commodity that I had hoped for in getting some \u201cto-do\u2019s\u201d off my list. I woke up one morning with a fervor to \u201cget my house in order\u201d. I admit, I\u2019m a full-on \u201cMartha\u201d. I calculated \u201cI can get a lot done during this confinement AND I can also find time to be a \u201cMary\u201d who sits at Jesus feet \u2013 plenty of extra time to do that too. So, I\u2019ve been a part of Zoom meetings where we do just that \u2013 encourage, pray, and support each other. I\u2019ve been able to attend on-line church and other on-line teachings and inspiration, besides finding more time for personal prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But, that new fervor to \u201cget my house in order\u201d was like a neon sign in my head. \u201cMake this time count!\u201d It started with cleaning out closets and cabinets. But, then thoughts started racing through my mind \u2013 \u201cIf something happens to me, my kids would have so much to deal with. I knew this was perfect timing to “get my house in order” like, how my kids can get into my computer, know my passcodes and find all my blog information, have in one place \u2013 all business and personal matters, records, bank accounts, insurance policies, utilities, home information, monthly bills, medical information \u2013 doctors, health care decisions, our living will, power of attorney, burial, literally everything, in one neat and tidy place. I don\u2019t want to leave anything helter-skelter in the event of an emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll admit it \u2013 the task seemed daunting at first. It meant looking up phone numbers, digging through files, websites, printing out paperwork and setting up a binder, separated with categories. It meant adding my children to my bank accounts as co-signers. That was a tricky one with getting us altogether, while apart, but thanks to my bank officer and being the only customers in the bank at the time, we were able to accomplish it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the greatest things my husband did for us, long before he was sick, was to set up a Living Family Trust for us. Family trusts protect our assets and benefit our family members beyond our lifetime and a living trust helps in avoiding probate issues. Why am I telling you all this today? Maybe you\u2019re a young person, a young couple, or a young family and you think time is on your side for \u201cgetting your house in order\u201d. We all know that our time on this earth is only known to God and this day could be our last day \u2013 no matter what age we are. I urge you to consider \u201cgetting your house in order\u201d for those you love, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, most important \u2013 is going back to that first paragraph and the scripture found in Isaiah 38 where Hezekiah could confidently say these words: \u201cLord, I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done good in your eyes.\u201d That, my friends, is what our \u201cspiritual house in order\u201d should look like. That kind of life is the best life we can live \u2013 not only in our relationship with God \u2013 but leaving that \u201cLiving Will\u201d of faith, devotion and good to our families, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When my father-in-law was diagnosed with melanoma cancer, the doctors stated, at the most, he\u2019d have only a few months to live. Dad was a strong man of faith (besides an evangelical pastor for over 50 years) and just wouldn\u2019t accept that \u201cdeath\u201d threat. He remembered Isaiah 38:1-7 where Hezekiah, too, was giving a death…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17092,17093,17089,17090,17091],"tags":[1210,1769,5807,2517,17095,17097,17086,444,40,17084,12467,17098,17096,17094,17099,12728],"class_list":["post-12255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hezekiah","category-house-in-order-2","category-house-in-order","category-living-will","category-spiritual-will","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-cleaning","tag-faithful","tag-financial-decisions","tag-health-care","tag-hezekiah","tag-house-in-order","tag-inspiration","tag-isaiah-38","tag-living-will","tag-power-of-attorney","tag-records","tag-shelter-in-place-2","tag-spiritual-affairs","tag-spiritual-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12259,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12255\/revisions\/12259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}