10 | Home Sweet Home

May this post find you in a safe and sacred place that feels like home.

My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.

Isaiah 32:18

Dear Lord, 

As I look around our house that Mr. and I just cleaned yesterday for our Bible Study gathering, I am so grateful for this home, currently clutter free and orderly, solidly built and protecting our loved ones.  When we keep on top of the daily detritus, it is a home that welcomes our family and friends, a space that embraces us with peace.  Thank you for breathing your joy and faith-filled fellowship into our home last night; thank you for providing safe shelter for us each day.

In addition to thanks, I also have to utter pleas for forgiveness.  Forgive us for the quarrels and tantrums and nagging that go into taking care of our house.  Forgive us for the ugly emotional dirt behind the picking up and the cleaning.  Those battles gnaw at our souls.  I desperately want to find a better way to tend our home and hearth so that the heart of our home drums out a beat that is strong, loving, true.  Give us patience and creativity along with sponges and mops and garbage cans.  Give us thankful hearts as we dust and polish the provisions you have entrusted to us.

Lord, I want our home to be a serene, welcome sanctuary where we can rest our souls and bodies.  Help me to tend to the spiritual needs of our family and home, as well as the physical needs.  Help me to make this space a soft landing place.  I need deep breaths as I unlock the door.  I need warm hugs as I embrace loved ones returning home and guests crossing the threshold.  I need attentive ears to embrace hurts and victories, hard questions and slow answers.  I need soft words to coach, encourage, help and heal.  

What I most need is you, central and strong, abiding in our abode.  Make sure I make our home a sanctuary for you.  Help me to fill it with literal and figurative reminders of your absolute power and your saving grace.  Help me to clothe it in things that encourage quiet time with you.  Help me to clear it of the clutter that distracts and distorts your message of unconditional love.

I pray that today — as I swipe the sink and deodorize the dirty laundry — you will help me to foster the attitudes that cradle us in our abode, invite us to comfortably be ourselves, and encourage us to connect faithfully with each other and with you, our Living Lord.  Please make yourself so very comfortably at home in our humble home.

Amen.

How is God making your home a sanctuary for him and for your family?  How can your living space clearly point to our Living Lord?

There are dozens of fabulous 31 Dayers dedicated to making their homes safe sanctuaries, and generously sharing their ideas.  Here are just a few!