Once again it has been too long since I’ve shared what God has laid on my heart, but here I am. This theme of home is something that I’ve been thinking about for awhile, but I’m just now ready to put pen to paper and share it. As I always do, I pray that the message I share, will be used to help you wherever you are on your journey and ultimately draw you closer to God and His will and direction in your life.
Many of us hear the word, “home,” and immediately think of a place, a house, an apartment, or maybe the house the we grew up in. We think of “home” as a building, but I argue that it is so much more. Yes, we’ve all heard the old saying, “home is where your heart is,” but how many of us have stopped to really think about and deconstruct that saying? How many of us get caught up in how nice our house looks, what kind of house we live in or building the “perfect” house? How many of us focus on the outside and don’t really focus on what is going on inside our house and our heart? We get caught up in the frivolous, the temporary, the extras and don’t really focus on what is going on in the heart. You see, what I believe the word, “home” means is the heart of the home, not a house, not a shell, not what you see or what will fade away, but the core of who we are, what we value, what we stand for, what our family stands for. Recently, we finished building our dream house. It was literally a labor of love and took a LOT of time and energy to build. It was not something that I ever intended to do, nor did I originally want to build a new home or have anything any bigger, but like so many parts of my story, God had other plans. Just a couple of months after Brian and I started dating, we started discussing buying a home together that we could live in after we got married (yes, we knew that early on that we were going to get married :-)). So, less than 2 months after we started dating, we went to look at houses, not thinking that this would be something that would happen soon, but to dream and plan for our future. We really thought it would just be fun to see what was out there, but God has something else in store for us on that fateful house-hunting day. We stumbled into a model home that happened to be unlocked and like so many incredible things that have happened in our lives, the minute we walked in, we knew that this was supposed to be our house. Yes, it was beautiful. Yes, it had beautiful extras. Yes, it had lots of space, but it was SO much more. It represented starting again. It represented beauty coming from ashes. It represented rebuilding and starting again. We were ready to put an offer in, but it wasn’t meant to be. The next day we discovered that our dream house was already sold. We were devastated and felt like we must have been wrong. The next weekend, we decided to venture back to the house to make sure it was truly sold. After realizing it indeed was gone, we happened to stop by the builder’s office and after discussing our love of this house and with many butterflies, discussions and prayers, we put money down on the same floor plan and started building our own dream house. I’m sure our family and friends thought we were crazy. We had only been dating 2 months, we had no official engagement or wedding date, but we knew without doubt that God had planned this for us and we were ready to walk this journey. The journey of building our home was definitely not an easy one. From delay after delay, to issues selling our other homes, to months of driving 30 minutes one way to to take Kaitlyn to school, to finally moving in, it felt much like many things in our life, not easy, but definitely worth it. Those months, though hard, taught us so much about each other, about relying on God and about patience. Coincidentally, our family word for the year, is patience, so we definitely had to remember this on the journey. So, why do I share all of this? I’m not just talking about a house that we built and how great it is, I’m talking about something so much bigger. You see, all those months of building, preparation, delays, worries and patience, helped to build not only a house, but a home and family. Just like our builders were laying the foundation, building the walls, painting and finishing our house; God was doing the same within our family. He was laying the foundation of what was important to us. He was shaping and refining our life. He was rebuilding us from the brokenness of our pasts. He was helping us to prioritize what was important, what needed to be done and He was helping us to remember that what was on the outside isn’t was is important, but what is inside counts. I believe that God has called us all to so much more than just looking a certain way, having certain things or pretending that things are perfect in our life. Those are all just the exterior shell or “house” part of you. What God wants for you and for me, is to truly make us like a home. He wants our home to be a reflection of Him. He wants our heart, our goals and our focus to be on Him. He wants us to build something in this world, that won’t simply fade as it grows older. He wants to build us into a home that reflects His love to the world around us. He wants us to hold onto the things that don’t fade away. Family, friendships, serving, being outward focused and He wants to use you and me to be the best home we can be. We may only temporarily live in the world, but the impact we make can last an eternity.
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Amy C.A young widow searching and sharing God's goodness. Archives
June 2018
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