Our home is a 12oo sq ft double wide mobile home. There is plenty enough room for my husband and myself. Yet I have found after living in it 3 years, I do not have enough drawer and shelf space in the kitchen. So I purchased cabinets to correct this problem, but not until I had downsized, getting rid of what I know I absolutely do not need or use. These cabinets are ones you put together yourself. I purchased 2 drawer cabinets, 2 one drawer/two door cabinets, and 2 two door cabinets.
I began the building process with one of the 2 drawer cabinets. The step by step instuctions were easy to follow. I finished it, thinking to myself, that was easy, not hard to do, I can do the remainder of the cabinets, no problem. The next cabinet I worked on was the 1 drawer, 2 door cabinet. As I began to follow the instructions I realized these instructions were not as clear or as easy to follow as the first cabinet instructions were. Some of the fine details were not mentioned. I then realized that this cabinet building was going to require some thinking through on my part. My assumptions had to go. I had to really look closely at the pictures, read and reread the instructions. Step by step, part by part, the cabinet came together.When I thought it was almost done, I realized there was a step that I didn't think through enough on. I had put the back on wrong side out and nailed it in place. So I said to myself, this won't do, it's not right, I have to take the back off and re-do it. Slowly and gingerly I pulled the nails out with minimal damage. I thought, I can live with this now that I know it's put together right.
A few days passed by before I could resume the cabinet building. My next day off from work I began again.The mistake I had made on the last cabinet did not discourage me, rather it was a means by which I began to understand the building process. The first cabinet I had the pictures, clear instructions, fine details. I simply followed what was before me and a completed cabinet was the result. I was a goood follower, it didn't matter that I had no clue, no understanding of the why of what I was doing. The second cabinet with it's pictures, instuctions without the fine details quickly caused me to realize that understanding the why and what did matter. This cabinet was not so easy to put together, there was a bit of a struggle. The struggle was the learning process, the studying it took with each step. Yet until the mistake I made happened, I was not understanding. The mistake helped me to know what I needed to understand. The fine details had begun to click in from the first cabinet.
The 3rd cabinet was the second 2 drawer cabinet. Again all went smoothly as the first one had but this time I was looking much closer at what I was doing to gain the insight for understanding I needed. I paid more attention to the parts, to the pictures, to the instructions and the fine details. My attitude had changed toward the building process. My perspective was different and I had a better understanding on what I was doing. The remaining 4 cabinets were but repetitions, reinforcing everything the experience was teaching me.
What began as a supply to a need became an opportunity for learning, gaining insight and growing. It became a valuable experience that has far more worth to it than just supplying a need. There's more to the building process than just following the instructions. With the following theres to be understanding developed.
Proverbs 3:13-14
Happy is the man who finds skillful and godly Wisdom, and the man who gets understanding, for the gaining of it is better than the gaining of silver, and the profit of it better than fine gold.
