Fireside Friday Morning Chat........pull up a chair 
This stove. Oi. This stove has been the bane of our existence for the past week. We were so excited when we bought it. We were so excited when we put it in place. We were so excited when we installed it. We were so excited when it fired up for the first time......a week ago.
Since then it's been such a lesson in perserverance and patience.
"Will it happen today? Will today be the day when it actually starts up on its own with no help or fooling-with on our parts? Will it start up first thing in the morning....or will I have to wait yet again until The Bud gets home from work, fools with it, gets it started after much work, only to then have to shut it down a couple hours later anyway....?"
We weren't so excited this week when, every day I'd get up in dark cold of early morning, open the fire box, vacuum out any ashes from our trial-fire the night before, load up the back with new pellets if needed, push the button, only to have it run through the motions AGAIN and show some stupid error code on the computer panel.
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Well, I don't know about that. I like to think it's actually all about faith, hope, perserverence, and patience.
Faith in that we bought this thing based on its reviews, the price point, and our prior experience and knowledge. We decided it was worth the risk of purchase.
Hope in that, even though it hasn't really worked this week for us, we had experienced it firing up once and so knew it had the potential to work again.
Perserverence in that we decided, based on the faith and hope we had, that it was worth the effort to keep trying to figure out what the problem could be.
And Patience in that as we perservered, exhausting every avenue available to us, continuing to work on it each evening, taking the back off, adjusting this, re-adjusting that, putting it all back together, pushing the button --only to have it show the error code night after crazy night, but yet starting the same process the next day as well.
Last night, The Bud and I worked on it on BIG TIME --we spent the better part of almost three hours after he got home from work and before eating dinner trying to adjust and re-adjust some TINY little ignitor button jussssst close enough but not toooo close to a particular area so that it would heat up properly and light the pellets. **side note --i am now an expert in this stuff; see me if you have any issues with your own 
Wonder of wonders, miracles of miracles. It actually worked on the first try last night.
Even more amazing --it actually lit the first time I tried it on this dark cold morning today.
God has a way of showing me His stuff in the everyday things of life.
Have you wanted something in the past and it didn't seem like it was ever going to happen for you? Or are you going through something right now? Does it seem like you keep trying to do something and it's just not changing? It's just not starting? It's not working?
Do not lose hope, dear heart. God has not forgetten you. He sees you. He see the potential in you. He sees the possibilities of "what could be" in you and for you.
His faith is a free gift to you today. His hope is unending. His perseverence is unfailing. And His patience will never, EVER run out. He will always, ALWAYS work toward your good, toward your success, toward your.......igniting.
I used to tell all my girls while they were growing up, "Patience is learning to wait with a happy heart." So, accept the challenges in life gladly. And yes, DO that same thing over and over again and EXPECT that different result.
Happy Friday, y'all. Go out and conquer your world.
