FROM HOUSE TO HOME

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Creating an honest to goodness home takes vision and effort. When Dorothy famously clicked her heels and repeated, “There’s no place like home,” she was thinking of more than her actual farmhouse back in Kansas. Her memories were of the atmosphere – the love, security, and happiness created inside that simple house. Here in SoCal, we can’t really relate to the tornado that prompted Dorothy’s longing for home, but the ground does give us a jolt now and then, as a reminder to take stock of ours.

Weak materials invite disaster, so the Bible calls for using the best. “Through wisdom, a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.” (Proverbs 24:3-4). Whether you are single, married, have children or not, creating a home requires a significant amount of these building materials. I’d love to say that you can run down to the nearest Home Depot or Lowe’s and pick up a one-time load of wisdom, but it takes repeated trips to the direct source – God’s Word. And acquiring understanding requires making time to ponder the people coming and going under your roof. What are their needs, hopes, desires? You can count on making mistakes on a regular basis because life isn’t perfect. But if we use what we’ve learned and keep moving forward, we’ll slowly be turning our house into a home.

A home is a refuge from the world outside, a place of comfort – it is laughter, crazy relatives, tears and occasional fights, hearts broken, and hearts mended and ultimately, lives molded. Vision and effort are definitely required; thankfully, the Bible gives us directions for acquiring both.

I encourage you to resist taking shortcuts by substituting flimsy materials. Instead, talk to God. He meets us where we’re at and, if we are willing, He’ll turn our homes around and help us fill them with all things precious and meaningful.