The Windows of Heaven Opened Up and Poured All Over Us

Flipping Furniture for Profit Ep 09

Val Frania:

Hi friend, I'm Val Frania, and this is the Flipping Furniture for Profit podcast where faith, creativity, and a little bit of sawdust all collide. If you're new here, welcome. If you've been hanging around, you already know this is not your average how to paint furniture show. Now, today's episode is a little different. We're stepping into the faith side of life. If you've someone who doesn't like hearing about how God blesses, protects, sometimes just downright shows off no hard feelings, you can click away. I still love you, but if your heart is hungry for encouragement and a reminder that God is still in the miracle working business, then stay right here. Because today I'm going to tell you how the windows of heaven literally opened up over our family. And I don't mean a little drizzle of blessings, I mean a downpour.

Malachi 3: 10 says, prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Okay. When the well runs dry. Have you ever felt that way? I felt the hand of God in my life ever since I was eight years old, at Camp CoBeAc That's in northern Michigan, where we would go every year as kids and enjoy a week away. A lot of preaching, a lot of fun, a lot of activities. In that year, I told him I wanted to serve him. I made that decision, went forward, told the guy that was counseling. "Yeah. I'm good. I know the Lord and I have decided I'm going to." I'm going to serve him with my life.

God took that seriously because I meant it. Fast forward through life, marriage, kids, business, full time ministry. There have been mountain tops and a whole lot of valleys the past few years. Honestly, they felt like a drought. Maybe you felt it too. Between the chaos in our country, the division that was everywhere, the fear, the constant changes. It was exhausting. In my business, I was shadowbanned on Facebook because of some political posts I'd made a long time ago. My reach went from thriving to nearly dead. And if you run an online business, you know that you can feel like hopelessness wrapped up in an algorithm. And I prayed a lot.

I asked God, make me better as a wife, mother, Grammie, and a business owner. Teach me how to live my faith openly. Not just at church, but in my business too. Show me how to help women, especially beginners, in this craft, while pointing them to you. And he did. But not in the way that I expected. God kind of shifted everything for me.

Earlier this year, I joined a coaching program that helped me get clarity in business and finally make progress online. It was like God nudged me and said, look over here. And it wasn't necessarily the things that the coaches told me. It was kind of a way to lead me out, to find my answers. That's when I discovered podcasting.

I love podcasting. I've been into the political podcasting for years, and that's how I stayed up to date. So I discovered that I could listen to podcasting rather than watching videos, which is typical in our craft. I could listen to podcasts no matter what the subject, while I was painting, while I was doing dishes. It just was a really convenient thing for me. It felt like home when I discovered podcasting. No algorithm to fight, no censorship, just me and a microphone and the people God called me to serve. That's you. Women of faith, and some men, who love creativity, Flipping furniture, and want to use their gifts without losing their mind.

Okay, it can be discouraging sometimes. Hope came back. Business came back. Peace came back. Have you ever felt like you're just in the right place at the right time? Okay, now, now, this is where God laughed and gave us an RV. Now, here's the story where it takes a turn. Our girls have been talking about camping for a while. April and Jillian and Katie and I were chatting over glamping, really, with coffee, comfy beds, no raccoons stealing the marshmallows. April and her family ended up boondocking in a trailer way up north. Katie bought one of those old Apache type campers. You know, the ones that crank out the beds that you you know, you can even have some inside things like, you know, toilets and showers and stoves and that kind of thing. And then Jillian shocked us all by willingly camping in a tent with hubby and two little kids.

So naturally I wanted in, but I wanted running water and air conditioning. We started dreaming about a permanent campsite instead of hauling a trailer everywhere and... we didn't have a truck. That's not something we wanted to do, but a permanent campsite sounded just right. We found one for sale and made an appointment to see it. It got sold the day before we got there. Found another too old for the campground. Took several weekends looking around Wisconsin, trying to find a trailer in a campground that was close enough to our house that it would be convenient. We are looking within an hour. Turns out most campgrounds have a ten year rule, so both deals fell apart. But we said it's okay.

God knows what is best. And if we never find one, it's okay. But now I see it was God saying, nope, I've got something better. Which we figured all along. Just saying that out loud makes me misty because I know I can trust him with my life. A few weeks later, we visited the dealership where our son had just started working. Kings Campers. And wouldn't you , know.?... There it was - our RV. Perfect size, perfect layout, perfect timing. We bought it.

And this is where the windows of heaven swung wide open. Here's the blessing list. Also known as God showing off. Here's a list because honestly, it's just too good not to write it down. These are the blessings God poured out one after another. Carol, our friend at the campground where we're at now, found us the perfect campsite and got the owner to save it for us until we were ready to move our trailer. She and her husband, Steve walked us through everything we needed to know. Stuff we didn't even know we should know.

And then Carol found us a ten by twenty wood deck, Told us to offer just one hundred bucks and they accepted. We bought a shed from that same person for less than half than what it was worth. We found a five piece outdoor table and four chairs for forty bucks on marketplace. April, our oldest gifted us a lighted patio umbrella that was given to her.

And we grabbed a five dollar table to put it in. She gave us a hammock that was given to her that she couldn't use, and it fits perfectly between two trees just behind our trailer for more outdoor chairs on clearance. Of course. Three outdoor rugs cheap one was marked down, clearance price, a brand new four burner griddle for a steal. Two Catios. Yes, you know those outdoor cat enclosures? One for the camper deck, a smaller one, and then one twice the size for a home. So I sold the old one that I already had on my deck at home for ten dollars more than I paid for it, on marketplace.

Then we got a square picnic table for when kids come to visit with four seats for forty bucks. And of course, I spray painted the metal part to match our color scheme. I furnished the inside of the RV almost entirely from our home, with all the extras that I had left over from when the kids were still here. And then with a few special things that I inherited from my mom, like her silverware, Dollar Tree and Temu. Filled the rest of the gaps.

And you know, DH, (dear hubby), he took that ten by twenty deck, separated it into three sections, raised it, positioned it perfectly with the supports it needed perfectly to meet the RV doors. It looks totally custom built. The campground, one of the campground owners, brought in dirt for DH to level the site and then placed our deck beautifully on DH supports. God didn't just give us a camper, he gave us a sanctuary, a place of rest, a place to dream again.

Psalm thirty seven four says, “delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Now let's stop for a second and talk about that verse where it says, he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. That doesn't mean all the desires in your heart he's going to give you, and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart. He is going to place in your heart. The correct desires. Think about that when you follow him. He changes your heart to desire the things of God. And then he sprinkles in all these hopes and dreams that he wants for your life. And then he gives them to you, If you're living right, if you're abiding.

Okay, so now you're wondering, what does this have to do with business? This is a furniture flipping podcast. Okay. What does it have to do with business and why does it have to do with you? That campground has great cell reception. My phone hotspot works so I can run my business from the deck with coffee in my hand, surrounded with nature. And the same God who orchestrated the RV orchestrated the business side too. He led me to podcasting. He gave me peace when I was feeling very stalled in this business.

He brought the right coaches, the right people and. Yeah, you. You're here. Listening. Now I'm combining, flipping and teaching in faith all in one shebang on a podcast. And it feels exactly right. I feel like it's the glove that my hand fits in perfectly, and I really enjoy it. And I hope you are too. So here's some final encouragement. There's more I could share. So much more, but I'll save it for another day. A little caveat here. We were able to take our two cats with us every weekend. We went to the RV and they adjusted and ended up loving it as well. So fun! And I even stayed up there a couple of weeks by myself, because we had a repairman coming in and I wanted to be there. So I got to work in nature, in solitude, in my new trailer. I just want you to know you can have peace. You can know you're on the right

path. You can trust God with your Business, your family, your future, and you can enjoy the journey. And you can hold on until he opens the windows of heaven for you if you aren't, experience it today. If you're not already on my email list, go to ValFrania.com/Flip4Profit , . so you don't miss a special three part video series that I'm creating for you, Hopefully, and I'm determined that it's going to encourage your heart and help you move forward with hope, not just hustle. Hustling is not the key. It's following God, having him bless your heart and lay out your path for you. Until next time, keep creating.

Keep the faith and keep flipping.