Our Home

I saw the above quote framed in a home decor section the other day and it made me stop and think. "If you want to change the world, go home and love your family." This is not the way we tend to think about world-changing. As I reach my mid-life I find myself reviewing life choices and wondering if I would have had a bigger impact on the world if I had chosen different paths. What if I had signed that record deal? What if I had traveled the world? What if I had used my degree for a full-time career?

In reality, the life I have chosen is the one I most desired (and presumably the one God guided me toward.) I stay at home with my three children whom I home school. I teach private music lessons from my home studio and I volunteer at my local church. In reality I am a home-maker - a job I have chosen (and mostly love) but occasionally that title feels small and not very "world-changing."

"If you want to change the world, go home and love your family." That idea was still swirling around in my head when I came across 1 Corinthians 7:17: "Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him."

I'm not sure what life the Lord has called you to live right now, but I know that making a home is a large part of my current position and God is reawakening me to the many ways one small home can bless the world.

A home that belongs to the Lord is a magical place. Good things grow here; kids (of course) but also peace and hope and joy and other God fruit. A home that is filled with God's Spirit is a place other people want to be. Week after week I watch students come in weary and burdened and find refreshment within these walls. Our home is for our family but it so often becomes a gift we offer to others as well. A home that belongs to the Lord is a picture of God's larger household and when we invite people into our lives - to sit and laugh and break bread - we are giving them a taste of the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God changes the world.

We should never underestimate the power of a life lived in joyful obedience. That very obedience blesses our families and godly families bless the world.

"Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only

the gospel of God but our lives as well."

1 Thess. 2:8