Home Sweet Home

This little guy greets those who come through my front door. He sits on the hutch in my entryway and gives a smile to anyone who will give him a glance! It is cold outside and I am so glad to be in my toasty warm home this morning. This afternoon I will need to venture out, but I can look forward to coming back home, knowing the warmth my home provides will be there to greet me. For years I had people tell me often "Your home feels so comfortable. When I come here I feel so peaceful." or I would hear "I could just stay here all day. Your home is so cozy" I always felt good about that. Home should be a safe place. Well over the past several years I have not been hearing (or feeling) that. I thought it must be these VERY active children...but wait a minute...my boys were active when they were young too. Ok, well it must be the house. I stopped hearing those comments after we moved here. Though now that I think about it, I did hear those things said when we first moved in. My house is clean. It is decorated in the same traditional way I have always decorated. What could be the difference? I finally figured out it is not the kids....it is not the house....it is not the decor....IT IS ME! My attitude had changed. Now I am not blaming my children, but I have had attitude problems in dealing with "The Faces Of Trauma" that I deal with daily. Over the last several months, I have begun to relax more. My attitude is slowly changing and that "feeling" is coming back into my home. Today I heard someone (a stranger) say those words again for the first time in a long time...."Your home has such a warm and comfortable feeling." It felt good, like I am back on my path. Being a "keeper of the home" is more than cleaning and cooking. It is also creating an environment that is safe, warm, comforting, and a place where your family and friends like to be. This has nothing to do with looks, but the feeling a home has. How many of you have noticed your kids wanting to leave the house all the time? They go to someone else's house and want to hang out there. Or are you the house where everyone wants to hang out? If there is a balance that is fine too, but if your family can not wait to get out of the house and go somewhere else (yourself included) there is a problem. I have had MANY days over the last several years where I could not wait to get out of here. Any of Sweet Hubby's days off were being mentally planned by me. I would tell him I need to "get out of here for a while". Charlotte's counselors would tell me "You need to take care of yourself and get out of your house and away from your children several times a week." I believed this and felt it was healthy. I think it is a major stumbling block to having a happy home. Home should be a place where you WANT to be. Now I am not saying that getting away with friends and a break is not important, nor should not be fun, but it should not be necessary for mental health to GET OUT OF YOUR HOME. I have actually felt that way. No wonder I was not hearing those comments about my home....if I could not even stand to be there, then WHY would anyone else? So the decor has not changed....same set of kids....same house....but different attitude. The warmth is coming back, not created by the fireplace, or the furnace, but by the keepers heart. I want to share something the Lord gave me through my morning devotions. I LOVE this book and, next to my Bible, it is the one I would never give up. Here is what I read this morning. It is written as if the Lord was speaking it directly to me. (which He is, since it is all scripture based) Check Thy Course

There is never a day, there is never an hour, there is never a moment when you are outside My thought. As David said, "Thou Lord thinkest on me." You also could say this as surely as David. You are no less dear to My heart, and I am equally concerned for you.

Go not into the path of folly, for My heart goes with you where ever you go; and I grieve over you when you are turned aside. You may not be going in the opposite direction. You may even be on a road that lies parallel with the one upon which I would have you travel. But to be almost in the perfect will of God is to miss it completely.

Check Thy Course! Chart it by My Word, and hold to it with rigid determination and be not led aside by the other little ships. For, as the scripture says: "There were with them other little ships"---but Jesus was only in one.

Be sure you are in the boat with Him if you hope to make it safe to shore in spite of the storms. For there shall be storms; but you shall be safe if you abide close to Him.