The way our children will grow up to create, the way they will grow up to think, the way they will grow up to make music, the things they will grow up and read, and how they choose their life choices comes from deep hidden places from a life in which beautiful things were practiced every single day.
When we gather at the table and thank God for our day and what he's done and then share some yummy food together we have the privilege of gathering together as friends. This is a sacred time our family has together.
Or the celebration of birthdays. When we say that we love you so much we want all of us to tell you what we especially appreciate about you this year.
We never told Anna she had to reach for an ivy league school or be an accomplished violist. We just celebrated what she did morning, noon, and night.
What will they remember? They won't remember what they got for their birthdays. They will remember the love, the feasts, the relationships, the comfort, the stability, the belonging. They won't remember the presents opened on Christmas morning. But they will remember the love, the feasts, the relationships, the comfort, the stability, the belonging.
"Each of us longs for a place to belong, a connection that gives room to our wandering lives. Our hearts hunger for a community where we are intimate members, a sense of belonging to people who love us. Our souls crave a purpose bigger than our jobs, a connection to a sense of meaning. We yearn to know that our own stories have significance in the grander scheme of God's mega story. All of these may be found in home - a place to belong, a people to be a part of, and a purpose where God's righteousness and design are celebrated and cherished in community every day.
That's not to say the home or the people in it have to fit a certain mold or look a particular way. Whether single or married, parent or childless, student, missionary, working away from home, traveling as a way of life, or in between places while being transferred - anyone can "make home" amidst the ever-changing circumstances of life. But it won't just happen by accident. Homemaking -not in the sense of housekeeping, but in the broader sense of cultivating the life of a home - has to be done on purpose.
The essence of home, you see, is not necessarily a structure. What makes a home is the life shared there, whenever that may be. And cultivating the life of home requires intentionality, planning, and design. There must be someone (or several someones) to craft the life, the beauty, the love, and the inspiration that overflows from that place." Sally Clarkson
This 'season' we are in right now is so unique because it allows us to live in such a way as to reflect deeply on the everyday moments of mundane life. It has been so good for this mamas soul. I am so blessed to be that 'someone' that crafts the life, the beauty, the love, and the inspiration for our regular life.
Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteHappy Mother's Day, my friend.