Hope, Even When it's Not Centered

Romans 15:13 says, "pray that God, the source of hope, will find you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow will confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." Hope is steady, resilient, and rooted in trust. Hope shows up in ordinary places, and look like trusting God when the delay is inconvenient. It's believing He's still present when nothing is "technically wrong," but everything feels wrong.

Have you ever started a home project feeling wildly confident? You designed it in your head. Put it on paper. Measured the space. Watched the videos. Did your due diligence. This time, it was going to be smooth. Foolproof. Practically HGTV-worthy. And then… suddenly it’s not going as planned, and you're questioning every decision you've ever made. You’ve lost all hope. Been there? Yeah. Me too. I hate a love-hate with home projects. Which brings me to this... are you good at hoping, or do you only feel hopeful when things are moving smoothly? Hope is easy when plans work. It’s harder when they stall. We say it’s fine, but inside we’re frustrated, irritated, and convinced the delay has ruined everything.

My husband and I moved last year, and while our house is technically “brand new,” we’re still knee-deep in projects trying to make it feel like ours. So over the holiday break, we decided to mount all the TVs. All five of them. Honestly, a bold move—especially considering the fact that when we did this in our first home at 22 years old, guest what happened... the TV fell off the wall. 🫠 Completely. I distinctly remember calling Hunter absolutely fuming… but hey, you live and learn. And that learning moment taught us one very important lesson: find a stud, always. Anyway—back to the story. We started in my office. Perfect. Nailed it (no pun intended). Honestly, we were moving like this was our full-time job. Next was the guest bedroom... bigger TV, more measuring, but still smooth sailing. Then our bedroom. Slightly more complicated, but still doable. Confidence was high. Hope was overflowing. And then… the living room. We found the studs. Measured the TV. Measured again. And that’s when we realized the studs were positioned in a way that meant the TV was not going to be centered on the wall. At all. Hope? Immediately gone. Hunter, being a man... said, “it’s not a big deal. We’ll just roll with it.” Me—absolutely not. I was instantly frustrated. Ready to throw the TV out the window. I was on Google. On YouTube. Desperate for a solution. So desperate, in fact, that I said, “let’s just nail it in. It doesn’t have to be in a stud.” Which, Amberly—did we not learn anything when your TV literally fell off the wall years ago? I was defeated. My day was ruined. My aesthetic? Ruined. The new living room furniture I have coming? Ruined. Everything felt worthless if the TV wasn’t centered. Thankfully, my calm, level-headed husband realized how upset I was and said, “we’ll figure it out.” And eventually… we did. We adjusted the bracket on the TV, shifted it as far left as possible (which, for the record, impacts absolutely nothing when mounted—just in case you ever find yourself in a similar situation), mounted it securely into the studs, and stepped back. The result? Perfection. Well actually… if I’m being honest, it’s not centered by about two inches. But you pick your battles. Hope restored. Oh, and the fifth TV? It’s going in the garage, above the bike/treadmill. We haven’t gotten there yet. We decided we need to give ourselves a little more time to refuel our hope tank… because y’all, that last TV did a number on us.

That whole experience reminded me how quickly hope can disappear when things don’t go according to plan, and how quickly it returns when we stop spiraling and trust that a solution exists. Hope doesn’t mean everything turns out exactly how you envisioned. Sometimes it means accepting a two-inch difference (like my TV) and realizing nothing is actually ruined. God is still at work. The TV still works The foundation still matters. And the outcome can still be good, even if it looks a little different than what you planned.

SHE Walks in Faith

Where have you been letting small inconveniences drain your hope? Hope doesn’t mean life moves faster, it means your trust runs deeper. God is still working in the pauses, still present in the waiting, and still faithful when things feel slower than you’d like.

🩷 Prayer

God, You are the source of my hope. Help me notice when I let impatience steal my peace. Teach me to trust You in the small delays and everyday frustrations. Fill me so fully that hope overflows—even in the grocery store line. Amen.