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Do you need reupholstering?
Kathy loves recycling other peopleâs garbage.
This month sheâs reupholstering a chair she found at a roadside.
It was more complicated than she had planned.
Do you need some work?
While she was taking it apart, God spoke to her.
In this video you will learn how God feels about reupholstering.
Just click on the video and get out your staple gun.
To live a transformed life you need to allow God to renovate you.
The finished chair!
Now I want to hear from you
How has God reupholstered you? Just leave your comments in the box below.
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Iâll talk to you next week,
Grant
Comments 29
Grant, I enjoyed hearing from your wife and her topic was interesting but something she said at the 1:58 mark distracted me and took away from the rest of what she had to say. It might have been an innocent comment but it’s something that bothers me greatly. When I first got married, almost 27 years ago, I decided I would never run my husband down in public, no matter how upset I might be, and I’ve sort of made it my mission to help other women think about what they say about their husbands and I will challenge ladies when they make negative comments. After Kathy said that she had knocked the arm off the chair, she commented that you were not handy in the least, there was no way she could ask you about it and then she said ‘he’s useless’ and carried on. Again, maybe she didn’t even think of what she was saying but it caught my attention and distracted me from the rest of the video. The comment was unnecessary and degrading to you, her husband – maybe you don’t know a thing about repairing furniture, but that doesn’t make you useless. We, as wives, need to be careful how we refer to our husbands and not make comments like this about them. It’s our ‘job’ to uplift our husbands, not point out what we think is negative about them.
I loved hearing from Kathy today and she is so “real”! I love how open and honest she is about everything because she knows who she is in Christ.
As for Cindy’s comment… please do not take away from Kathy’s wonderful message here and you need to “lighten up”! I have said the same thing about my husband and we’re still together after many years of saying the same thing! This is not by any means putting our men down, it’s just the simply truth and my husband would be the first to agree.
Please understand that we are only “human” and we are not “perfect” by no means.
Kathy, I would love to hear from you often as I love your total honesty!
God bless you,
I have two things to say…
First I have to completely agree with everything that Cindy said above… It really caught me off guard as well and while it was a great message how we need to be restored, with my A.D.D. I feel the most I took away from this was the negative comments about your husband. I’m certain you don’t honestly feel that he is useless… but it came across your lips far to quickly and easily.
I think of Luke 6:45 The upright (honorable, intrinsically good) man out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart produces what is upright (honorable and intrinsically good), and the evil man out of the evil storehouse brings forth that which is depraved (wicked and intrinsically evil); for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks (Amplified). I know you didn’t say it to be awful or evil, but if it so easily slipped in your video, perhaps it may be something you want to consider taking to God.
And the other thing I want to say… I hope I can find a chair like that in someone’s free pile someday!! 😉 I’ve been wanting one for SO LONG! I’m a photographer and my goal has always been to run a 100% debt free business… so, NO LOANS for the equipment my competitors have! Thus, I restore and refresh, and SAVE UP! 🙂
Blessings to you.
It was great to see Kathy with her project and I’m looking forward to seeing the finished chair. I was surprised to hear that you have a daughter because you usually speak of only you and your wife. Do you have more children, just curious.
I can really relate to being re-upholstered! In fact I call my self the ‘new and improved’ me! A personal relationship ended and brought me to my knees. I needed help. I was able to connect with two fabulous consellors. A psychologist from the Y and my preacher at church. Two great women. We started at the beginning, my childhood and then travelled onward. I am so thankful that I was lucky enough to be helped by these wonderful women who were totally guided by God and the Holy Spirit.
Thanks Cindy and Heather for defending me. I appreciate your concern and the importance of negative words. (Which was the subject of last week’s video). Because I’m an author, teacher, doctor, people tend to presume that I’m an expert in everything. Kathy was pointing out, in what was intended to be a humourous way, that I’m clearly not an expert in everything. It was an attempt to humanize both of us. We apologize for any offense.
Yes Kristin, we have 2 children. Ruth is 24, working in Toronto and Peter is 22 in his last year of Engineering at the University of Waterloo Ontario. I told a story about Ruth in this video https://drgrantmullen.com/2011/08/how-to-protect-your-kids-from-everything/
Hi Kathy! You are beautiful from the inside out! I appreciate this restoration project blog so much because I too have taken free discarded furniture and refinished it and it seems more valuable to me than a piece fresh off the production line. The line in this blog that wins my soul is, “the things we think have been making us beautiful”. Wow, I have 50 years’ worth of those in my soul’s repertoire of bad training. This encourages me to give God at least 5 years of my time, patience, perseverence and process of heart work to restore me. I am craving to experience Father God’s embrace as described by Jack Frost and I can see it will not be instantaneous. I have been reading [Zechariah 8 “God’s Promise to Bless”] with belief, faith and the Holy Spirit. I am receiving much hope today, thanks to you and the faith community. In the last two years I have connected to my local spirit filled church, attended growth classes and joined one of their small groups. I thank God for your ministry with Grant. It brings much encouragement and peace. God blesses and favors us all the time, in Jesus’ name! (p.s. I also enjoying making quilts and my husband is a computer geek)
Great message Kathy.
Great comment about Grant, now I know he is at least useless at something. Imagine how difficult it would be to live with him if he was great at everything.
Critics, please get a life, there are bigger issues to worry about in this world.
Kathy – great job! So you have a humorous side too eh? “Grant is useless.” Now is he going to need healing and forgiveness on that one? (smile) I completely know what you mean. We all have different areas of gifting.
My own reupholstering story is that I’ve lost 90lbs in the past year.
Wow Rose! 90lbs, that’s fantastic! You’d need a new wardrobe.
Yes I’ve recovered from Kathy’s remarks. I was shooting the video after all. We had thought it was only a playful jab.
Dear friends, What more can I say but; Where can you find a vituous wife that is an virtuoso ( a person who has a cultivated appreciation of artistic excellence.) 2/ a person or collector of objects of art, curios, antiquities, etc. to in which Kathy was going to give to her daughter and fix it up for her household. I remember one time in my life I told my military pastor at one time I feel so useless. Then he said to me never consider yourself useless because you can always be considered as an example! Therefore Kathy was in likeness of God where she was to make new part of a resoration of an old thrown away piece of furniture and make it change into a before and after transformation look as Kathy stated, what lessons did I learn about what God can do for was from this video that sometimes it takes the faith of a woman that can change people’s thinking to let them know however the task and who ever has the work ethic to do the job and has the ability to do with someone who is willing and the other who may not have the Lord’s carpentry skills. I agree that anyone can be transformed by whom ever especially when the man in the house is not able to do it at the time, and the wife asks I need someone that has the skills to do it and it becomes a fiqure of speech at the person who in loving and caring manner said he is useless at be a help to me and then I will do it. God’s Peace. John
I am about to do an International Leaders School of Ministry in Queensland Australia with John & Carol Arnott from Toronto and KNOW that there is going to be some restoration work happeing ON me IN me. Praise God that he sees better things for our lives than we do. Trusting I will come out of this transformed. Thanks for the great timing of this video and the encouragement it has given me to allow my loving Heavnely Father to work on this structure. Bless you both for the wonderful work you are doing.
Have a great school Michelle. Please say hello to Arnott’s for me. They are good friends and we’ve done many conferences together.
Kathy,
Loved it! Thank-you! This is so interesting as my husband and I are currently being stretched in so many areas of our lives – it is exciting and uncomfortable at the same time. There has been some stripping ….. a lot of stripping ….. but like the fabric being pulled into all the corners of the chair structure, including the cushion, back and arm-rests, we are currently being stretched and pulled (lovingly) and being re-covered. This recovering is part of our recovery. This morning in church, we learnt about “The art of rescue” = restoration. This adds to the picture of how God rescues and restores us. Looking forward to seeing the finished product Kathy of your labour of love. 🙂
Hi Kathy,
Thank you for sharing your insights from God around fixing up the chair for your daughter. I found this really encouraging :-). Looking forward to seeing the finsihed product. So cool that God looks at us like you said and sees potiential, and in Jesus is working towards that finished product in us.
Looking forward to seeing you both in Porirua, New Zealand soon.
God bless you both
Wendy
I believe the Lord seems to have stripped away my Future plans,as well as having me recognize what He wants me to strip away on the inside.Has been a time of great adventure and great pain.
Very good analogy. Well explained and what a find!!!
Thank you so much to both of you for your inspiring messages.
Blessings
Denise
Nice Chair!
You did a great job. You certainly saw something beautiful in that chair. What a gift to be able to draw out the beauty in something that others have passed by.
Thank you for sharing.
This is confirmation on my journey of transformation that started approximately 7 years ago. It took my about 2 years to realise what God is up to, and this knowledge did not come cheap either. Through various difficulties which chipped away at my faith, strength and self image, I can not wait to hear what the Lord has in store for me next! Thank you, Kathy, for sharing
That was really good, Kathy … and the chair is beautiful!
Wow love the new chair … amazing gift you have to complete it and see the vision of this chair to look this wonderful! Lucky daughter … blessings, Julie
Kathy: I am being “reupholstered as we speak, it has been a challenging and fruitful process. Actually for both my husband and I. He isn’t finished with us yet but we look forward to where He is taking us. Great job on the chair! Kathryn
Some very good points, but I would submit that we should NEVER call our spouse “useless” in public, even in a joking manner. I have learned that we should only build our spouses up, never put them down.
Women today are encouraged to be very casually demeaning to men through the media. Just look at how men are continually portrayed as clueless buffoons on TV and in advertising. This is cause massive damage to male/female relationships, both in society-at-large and in the church.
Let’s all consider ONLY building our spouses up, never ridiculing or putting them down in public. We as a society and as a church have become entirely too comfortable with this.
Although it’s done under the banner of “joking”, it still sends a subtle message. This subtle message has seriously taken root in our society to the point where men are demonized right and left simply for being male and having masculine traits. We can consciously decide to become part of the solution to this tragic western paradigm by choosing to convey the opposite – women publicly respecting men, which runs entirely counter to the world’s way.
What we teach our children through “only joking” can really take root and become an accepted perception. It already has.
I laughed out loud when I saw that title question. I’m in the “reupholstery” on a regular basis. The Father is graciously persistent. No time for details at the moment.
Kathy I so love your reality in letting God use the everyday aspects to highlight the tender loving kindness that He molds and fashions us with, to transform us. God has been showing me that one is never too old, broken, distraught… to repair and that He never tosses us side as un-fixable no matter what we think. Yesterday I was reading in Ephesians 2:10 that I am God’s masterpiece and that’s how he sees me despite how I think, feel or see myself, I was so encouraged to rather look into the mirror of his word, than to feel eroded by my mis-perceptions.
It’s great to see/read all the responses to Kathy’s beautiful (and “controversial”) message.?
This is confirmation that you two are touching/influencing many lives (even when there’s only one comment sometimes). Thank you for living a transformed life!
Fast forward to 2021!! This video was so good for me. I love the encouragement that I should expect to be stripped of what I thought was right or “beautiful” in order to be transformed. This is amazing news and I find myself jumping up onto the workshop bench, willing and ready to be stripped of the fear, shame and control by the tools in the hand of the Father that loves me. HE will restore me to the vision He had for me before the foundation of the world!!
PS. I love the way you refer to each other and work together in these videos to help people like me. Thanks be to God!!
Emmie Cox-Thurman
Author
Thanks Emmie. Glad you found it helpful this many years after we posted it.