Do you have these five essential things in your home?

I have recently moved into a new home.  This has involved a lot of hard work, shoving furniture around, hanging curtains and packing stuff into cabinets and closets.  During this time I have been aware of the many blessing in my life.  I get to hang curtains when millions of people don’t have windows on their homes.  I get to move furniture around when many don’t have beds to sleep in.  I don’t feel guilty for having stuff because I know that the stuff does not have me.  I practice a lifestyle of giving.  For me, generosity is as basic as breathing and I seek every opportunity to be a giver.  This message is not about me being your lifestyle police and making you feel guilty about your stuff.  Rather it is about the concept of “home” and the five essential things that make a house a home.  It is about how important “home” is to our wellbeing.

I have had the privilege of being a guest in houses made of mud and straw where the floors have been compacted with cow dung.  I have also been privileged to be the guest in houses that are majestically adorned with the best finishes the world has to offer.  In both these extremes, what turns the simple or elaborate house into a home are these five things:

• Home is a place of refuge.  All humans crave a place of safety, a place where we know that we are not in danger.  Home is where we feel safe.  With all our flaws and faults, home is the one place where these don’t get used against us.  Home is where we are unconditionally accepted and loved.
• Home is a place to rest.  This does not mean we don’t work; it means we find rest at home.  We no longer strive and stress and perform.  We don’t need to impress and our position is not in jeopardy.  We are at rest.
• Home is a place to recover.  Life can knock us about and can hurt us.  There are many dangers to traverse and sometimes we are wounded.  Home is where we recover from the bruises and gashes that will inevitably come our way.  Home is where those that know us best soothe us, bind us up and mop our brow.
• Home is a place to regroup.  There are so many demands made on us as we go out into the world every day.  So easily we become over-involved, entangled and distracted.  Home is where we can once again touch base with what is truly important to us, where we can refocus and be redirected back to our core values.
• Home is a place from which to respond.  Home is our base of operation.  A place from which to reach out and make the difference that only we can in this world.

Those of us who find these five things in our family and in the physical house where we live are truly blessed with a “home”.  If we, in turn, are providing these five things to our family, they are truly blessed.  However, sometimes “home” is not the place where we live.  Sometimes it is a person or a church or some other place.  For the well being of our soul, it is important that we find a “home” for ourselves and intentionally go about making a “home” for those we love.COMMENTS ARE WELCOME