My wife really likes hard wood.  I believe I prefer carpet, especially when children are learning to walk.  However, hard wood is easier to clean, and it does have a bright appeal.  When we re-carpeted one of the rooms we noticed that there was hard wood underneath, and for some time we wondered if the same was true throughout the house.  So, Saturday, we decided to find out.

Sure enough, we tore up a corner and there was beautiful hard wood.  Tearing up more revealed not as good of a condition and a weird wooden grate that must have been part of the original heating system of the house– at least, that’s the only sense we can make out of it.  We got the carpet and pad out, cut it (since it goes into the living room and we weren’t ready to take it all out yet), and put it outside.

The the kids woke up.

Now, we’ve worked hard to get them ready for the idea of a new house, and they started to really like the idea of a new floor– until Sunday night when my oldest told me that he didn’t want me to take up the Living Room floor because he liked the carpet and it would make him cry.  Tonight, he started balling when I told him I was going to take the trash out because he didn’t want the old carpet to go.  He said he would miss it.

This is totally foreign to my wife, who embraces and desires change.  I can sympathize because I’m at best ambivalent, and I need to think of how it will be better because I also trend toward memories and nostalgia.

But as I got to thinking, it’s really a reflection of how people are.  People generally don’t react well to change.  They like to know where things are, what things are, and what they can count on.  Whether it’s computer programs or coworkers, there are times when things change and we can have a hard time adapting, a hard time knowing what is going on, and we can begin to doubt what’s going on around us.

It’s at this time that we need to rely on God, we need to look to His immutability (that He doesn’t change) and rest in His love and care.

So, two things to take away from this:

1. Don’t make drastic changes to the house without letting the kids know what you’re doing.
2. To stop them from crying and “missing” the carpet, offer to let them help pick out the new throw rug.

Just don’t tell my wife that he’s hoping for a red rug with Spiderman on it.