Hi Friends! How was your weekend? I sure hope it was amazing!

We are nearing the end of this series and today we are sitting down with Bre from Rooms for Rent to hear a firsthand account of how God continues to turn beauty into ashes in her life. Grab a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy this encouraging story!

I've been in church my whole life, however that doesn't mean that I've had it easy or a perfect life by any means. I first experienced God's saving freedom when I was 13 and my family was broken apart by divorce. I had every reason in the book to turn my back on God then, but He showed up in such a powerful way and saved me from going down a very destructive path. Fast forward a few years, I started dating my now husband, and we have been happily married with 2 little kids for almost 10 years. I had always dreamed of becoming an interior decorator, it was something I enjoyed doing early on. I think I was the only 12 yr. old who would create vignettes in her room out of all my friends. I would rearrange my displays just for fun, and turn any flat surface into a beautifully decorated canvas. I would cover my walls in giant collages of cut outs from magazines and photos of me and my friends. There wasn't an ounce of wall left to be seen, and it all inspired me. It wasn't until we had settled into our first house, and after the birth of our 2nd child that the passion to decorate started bubbling up again. I had always decorated our apartments nicely, and thankfully had the freedom to paint in both of them, but this was different. This time we owned and I was bound to put my mark on it. I started my blog so I could document all the changes along the way.

About 9 months after I started my blog, I began to feel my heart strings tugged again to start exploring becoming an interior decorator. I had my hands full with two babies eighteen months apart, a new home I hadn't even scratched the surface on all my plans for yet, and still I had this undeniable urge to start my own business. You see though, I had been here before. Everytime I got this close, I came up with an excuse as to why not, and talked myself out of it. I would either tell myself I don't have the time to take the classes, or "I never went to school for that, so who would want to hire me anyways"? Then I started having kids, and put all my energy and focus into that. My husband was so supportive along the way. Seeing my desire to create and decorate, he always encouraged me, or put up with it when I was trying something new out. This time was different though, this time I had seen others, who maybe hadn't been to school, and they were doing it. I had done enough decorating for family members and friends and finally been asked one to many times when I was going to finally starting doing this as a business. Something was still holding me back, and it was more than just doubt. I wasn't afraid of failing, this went much, much deeper than that.

He took me back to when I was in elementary school, and I over heard a conversation between my 5th grade teacher, my mother and my rivals mother. Now there was no issue, it was friendly conversation. But you all know what I mean. There was that one girl who no matter what you did, she did it better. She was a better student, a better athlete, got voted for all of the superlatives. She was just your all around A+ student, star athlete, the most popular. She was everywhere in all my classes, all the sports I played, she always got the positions I would try out for. I felt like I lived in her shadow. Well one day, in casual conversation, my mother was talking to my teacher about how well of a student I was, boasting, like any mother does. I remember smiling with confidence, and then the other girls mother said "oh that's nice, but it just comes naturally to Susie(fake name), she's just better at everything" And looks at our teacher for affirmation. Instant defeat I felt, I wanted to hide behind my mothers legs and cry. I don't even think they knew I was listening. But it was that very moment that I took on the lie that "I was not good enough". I carried it with me through the rest of my school years, throughout every sport I played. Anything I put my hands to, I never put forth full effort because deep down inside I always believed I wasn't "GOOD ENOUGH"?!

I broke when God revealed that to me. That in my heart all these years, despite being saved, and doing many great things He had lead me to, I carried this around everywhere I went. It might as well been tattooed on my forehead. Oh but I hid it well. I concealed it so good I wasn't even aware it still existed. I asked God instantly to heal that part of me that had been broken so long ago, and allowed Him to speak truth over me. No longer was I believing this lie anymore. No longer was I doubting myself anymore. I used to shrug off compliments or words of affirmation, thinking I was never good enough to amount to what people were seeing. You can imagine the deep sigh of relief I felt after that sob session of realization. But it was truly releasing those lies to God and asking Him to show me how He sees me. The purpose He created me for. My own divine gifts. At the end of each chapter in Holly's devotional she closes with the most heartfelt of statements. True affirmation for the area that God is speaking to you on in that chapter. I want to share that chapter's statement with you today, and allow His truth to wash over you!

You are God's Masterpiece -

started in His heart, formed by His hands,

and offered as a gift to the world.

Much more than a work in progress ...

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Restoration House Interiors

Since 1981, Colonial Restorations has provided structural restoration and repair of historic timber frame buildings. A family business, Tom (UMass Class of 1973) and Brad Green (Wesleyan University Class of 2000), father and son, perform all work themselves in order to make sure that your historic timber frame project receives all the experience and commitment it requires.

In the past few years, we have worked or have done site visits as far away as Kennebunk, ME, northern Vermont, and Buffalo, NY to the north. South of our location, sites include the Hamptons on Long Island, northern New Jersey,south western Pennsylvania, and numerous sites all over CT. Of course all of Massachusetts, including Cape Cod and the islands, are in our work area. We have been called to consult on houses not only with water and rot damage, but also tornadoes and even an explosion. Although New England wasnt hit hard this past winter, mother nature is always full of surprises that can affect buildings without people realizing it. If you have any questions about how the structure of your building is holding up, please Contact Us.

To know these buildings as we do is a privilege. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it. And every day we find this to be true. History has a way of repeating itself. In the early-mid 1980s, the savings and loan crisis caused a recession in the building trades.In many ways, the past several years have seen economic problems and challenges similar to then. Some builders tried to provide themselves an income by expanding the services that they offered. With no real timber frame experience, they often advertised sill replacement and structural work relating to post and beam buildings. Unfortunately, they often lack the practical experience and love of the antique buildings to do the job successfully. There is an old story about a small New England town. It seems a new barber moved in and put up a sign offering three dollar haircuts. Soon after the original barber put up a sign in his window saying We fix $3 haircuts. I guess its fair to say that we have fixed many three dollar haircuts.

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Colonial Restorations Offers Old House and Barn ...

LUCAS COUNTY, OH (Toledo News Now) - After major boiler and flooding issues shut down the Domestic Relations Division of the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas last month, damage assessments and costs have been finalized. The county is sharing that information exclusively with WTOL.

It caused the court to be closed for three days, which was an inconvenience to the public, we understand. But it could've been worse, said Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken. We have some estimates on it, we know what the damage is, we know the restoration costs and we know what the cleanup cost is.

An initial cleanup cost of $60,000 and other restorations will be billed to Lucas County, whose liability on the Family Court building is $100,000.

It's about $250,000 to do the restorations, Gerken said. It sounds like a lot of money, but like homeowners would, we have insurance and we have a risk fund to do that.

An assessment team has concluded that the damage is not structural.

The restoration is basically: We're going to paint, we're going to put wallpaper back in, we're going to put ceiling tiles back in, and furniture. So probably about four to six weeks. It's not heavy restoration, but something you have to do when your house gets wet, Gerken said.

He also said the county is in good shape financially to handle the repairs on the building, which will be 25 years old in May.

It's an important building for us, he said. There's a lot that goes on there every day. We regretted being down the three days, but we're back. That's what we have plans for and our plans worked.

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Only on 11: Lucas County left with restoration costs for Family Court damage

Chris Weber of the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge inspects the repaired lighthouse lens assembly.

Ponce Inlet A lens that sat atop a North Florida lighthouse from the end of the Civil War until last November was crated in a plywood box and lifted to the bed of a white pickup truck Thursday to begin its long drive home.

The Fresnel lens assembly, made in Paris by Henry-Lepaute Company between 1854 and 1860, had arrived weathered and deteriorated. It was cleaned, repaired and stabilized at the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse and Museum, a project that took four months.

Over 500 hours work, said Ellen Henry, curator at the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse who did much of that labor.

Ed Gunn, executive director of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse and Museum, said the museum is donating the effort as our gift to the lighthouse community. It is one of the few facilities in the nation with experience in this kind of project.

Wow! exclaimed Chris Weber, facilities operation manager for the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, when he first saw the assembly. This looks right.

St. Marks is Floridas second-oldest operating lighthouse, built in 1842, three years before Florida became a state. The three-foot, egg-shaped lens assembly weighs about 150 pounds and was installed in 1867.

A Fresnel lens focuses the diffuse light from a lighthouse lamp in this case, it was originally a whale-oil lamp into a tight beam you can see for miles.

Made of rows of greenish glass prisms wedged into a bronze skeleton, the assembly had suffered metal deterioration and broken prisms after almost 150 years atop the lighthouse, which is now undergoing a $1.5 million renovation.

A lot of bad things happen over the years, and you start to lose your parts, said Henry.

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Civil War-era lighthouse lens goes home

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