My parent's home is a very lively, happy, busy, noisy, vibrant and creative place. It is full to the brim with love and energy and grace. When I was still at home we were always trying new things, reading books, discussing and sharing what we were learning, learning new music and working together. Some of us love to write and enjoy editing film for short movies. My parents let us be ourselves and encouraged us to try new things and learn as many skills as we could. As a result, there was always some thing new going on and something happening.
My parents view hospitality as an outreach to others and as a result, there are always people in and out of their home. They are excited about life, their family and the Lord, and is infectious. There is rarely a dull moment there.
It was a very exciting place to grow up. You never knew what would happen next. There is always some plan or project (or two or three) in the works.
That is the lively atmosphere I grew up in. Now I have my own home, and while we don't have children yet, I want that same, happy, vibrant atmosphere in our home. I'm a bit overwhelmed, as I don't know how they did it. I always took it for granted until I grew older and realized that not all homes were like ours.
My life right now consists of very laid back and quiet days and very busy evenings. We are only home one or two evenings a week.
This is very different and almost completely opposite to my growing up years. We almost always had the majority of our evenings at home, together. I realize this busyness is due, in part, to living in the city.
Perhaps it is silly and an unfounded fear, but my concern is that if we still live in the city when we have children it will be hard to cultivate and nurture the culture and home life I desire for our family. Perhaps it isn't really the "city" aspect of it so much as the busyness aspect. I don't want us to be so busy that we aren't able to spend quality, important time together. I do not want frivolous, meaningless activities to rob us of our precious time together at home.
I don't want our home simply to be the place where we eat and sleep. I want it to be where our life happens.
So I have been praying and asking the Lord for guidance on what I should do and what things need to be set in order. I want to make our home a peaceful, happy haven and retreat for Jacob, and also one day, for our children.
I still have so much to learn and I realize that I will only learn some of it with time. Thankfully, the Lord has given me Jacob, who is laid back and can calm and soothe me when I get too high-strung. He reminds me not to fret and that the Lord will work it all out and has it under control. :) He's right.
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