Welcome back to part 2 of “Home Is Where My Heart Is!  This is my home.  My wonderfully messy home.  Where my children are free to enjoy life, expand their imaginations and have fun.  Many days their imaginations are much greater than this and it looks much more like an exploding toy store. But, instead of going crazy worrying about getting it back into order, I need to remember that this isn’t just a house to keep clean, this is my home.

And home isn’t just where we live, it’s where we love.

I’ve always dreamed of being a mom and a wife and having a family.  I am living my dream.  But lately, I’m being reminded that this is my home, not just my house.

I think about how often girls plan for their wedding day with so much thought and detail, but sadly, many forget to prepare for the marriage.  Similarly, do we spend more time and effort picking out furniture and decorating the perfect house, that we forget to create our home?  Our homes are more important than our houses.

Which one are you creating?  The beautiful house, or a beautiful home?

I think about beautiful houses I have visited.  There are some that I can think of that were exquisite.  I walk away thinking, oh, I wish I had that style, or could decorate like that.  I wish my house looked like that.  I can clearly remember the feeling I got when I walked away.  It was beautiful, no doubt, but I left feeling like I was falling short, filled with comparison and jealousy.  I walked into my house and immediately started taking mental inventory of how I needed to make some changes.

On the contrary, think about someone’s home you have visited where you weren’t even drawn to the surroundings or the scenery on the inside, but rather, you immediately felt at home.   I have a dear friend I’ve known for years in Iowa, that when I walk into her home, it’s a breath of fresh air, an invitation to be fully present and refreshed.  It’s a retreat for my soul.  I imagine myself being wrapped in the arms of this home, that if it could talk it would say, “Welcome.  We’ve been expecting you.  You are home.”  I walked away feeling joy, warmth and peace.

Which one would you rather create?  We are all creating something.  Our homes have nothing to do with the decorations or the furniture.  A home is created by who WE are.  As we grow and mature and become the women God created us to be, our home will breath life into all who live there and all who enter.  I want to create that kind of home.  But homes just don’t happen.  They are intentionally created–one day at a time, one decision at a time.  We create the mood, the memories, and the relationships that are vital to a thriving home.

What kind of home are you creating?

So, of course, I love God’s word and I wanted to know what it said about “home”.   And as always, here are some beautiful truths that God revealed to me. Keep in mind there are over 200 verses in the bible relating to “home”.  I will not go into detail with every one, but if you have a block of time to search for them yourself, you will be blessed.  I used Bible Gateway, which is a very simple, easy to use app.

Genesis 18:33 When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home. 

Home is the place we will always return to.

Genesis 25:27 The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.

Our children grow up at home.  We want to create a place where they are content to stay.

Genesis 29:13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him.  He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things.

We bring people to our home.  We welcome them, embrace them.  And our home is where we tell our children and our families “all these things”.  In our homes, we talk about God, about important issues, about life.

Genesis 30:25 After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland.”

We need a home to go back to.  A home is something you take ownership of.  It is ours, it is our family’s.

Genesis 34:5 When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he did nothing about it until they came home. 

Home is where we discipline and instruct our children.

Genesis 43:26 When Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts they had brought into the house, and they bowed down before him to the ground.

We give gifts to our loved ones and bless them.  We honor each other in our homes.

Exodus 3:8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with mild and honey–the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

Our homes are to be abundantly good, spacious (room to live-cut out clutter), and overflowing.

Exodus 12:27 Then tell them, “It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.”

Our homes are a refuge, a safe place.  We are protected in our homes.

Ruth 2:11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband-how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before.”

We must leave our homes to serve others.

Luke 10:38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.

We must open our homes to others.

Titus 2:4-5 Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

We are to love our husbands and children at home.  We are to learn to be self controlled and pure at home.  We are to be busy at home.  How often are we busy–away from home?

1 Tim 5:14 So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander.

We are to manage our home.  If we choose not to, we give the enemy an opportunity.

Acts 2:46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.  They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.

We are to eat together, break bread and fellowship in our homes.  We are to do this with glad and sincere hearts.

Acts 18:26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue.  When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.

We are to invite others into our home and explain the way of God!  We should invite people who don’t know the Lord so we can share Him with them.  We must invite those that do, so we can talk about God and grow in our faith!

Acts 20:12 The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

Home is where we are alive and can be comforted.

Acts 28:7 There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island.  He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days.

Let’s welcome others to our home and show them generous hospitality.

Oh, I could go on and on.  But you get the point.  The Bible is clear on it’s vision of the home.  There is so much more that I could tell you, but you will just have to read it yourself.  Our homes are about nurturing our families, about growing together, making memories, about being fully alive!  We honor one another, we respect and bless one another.  We have freedom to grow personally. We give life sustaining training and discipline.  We instruct and guide.  But we also, welcome and invite others.  We build our homes, so they are a place where others can see and feel God.  We talk about God in our homes.  We make Him the center of our homes.  And, also importantly, we are to launch from our homes to serve the world.  And we are to do it all with a glad and sincere heart.  Whew!

When we build our homes with love, freedom, confidence, security, respect, honor and goodness, we will be building up our husband and our children to go out and share Jesus with the world! Amen!

Proverbs 14:1 “The wise woman build her house (home), but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.”

Ouch.  Are you building your home up?

 

Or tearing it down?

What vision do you have for your home?

Let me share something I wrote recently in my journal:

My home is a reflection of who God made ME!  It’s MY home to display God’s work in my life.  To show what’s important to me.  To be a vessel to love others, to provide shelter for those needing it.  To be a refuge to the weary.  I want my home to speak truth and love.  I needn’t be afraid of what people think of it.  It is MY home.  What does my home say about me?  About us as a family?  Am I inspired by living here?  Have I created idols?  Do my children and husband feel a sense of love and belonging?  Help me Lord to transform my home into a creative, loving masterpiece.  A place to worship God.  A place to create memories.  2 Corinthians 5:9 “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”

 Oh, I pray dear God, that this is the home I am building.  Please lead me and guide my hands as I shape and form the home in which you have given me.  And above all, let it be pleasing to you.  Amen.

What vision to do YOU have for YOUR home?  What kind of home are YOU creating? How are YOU building YOUR home?