A Wealthy Home

I remember visiting a regal home with beautiful gardens,

well set up, impressively inviting, like a place you would want to stay a while. 

My eyes scanned every inch of the lovely home, taking in each vista of magazine-worthy views. 

 But for all its charm, there was an obvious lack of atmosphere. 

There was an emptiness one could taste, a  bitter flavor, even though people were present.

 I sat thinking long and hard on the way home.

In every material aspect, that house looked like a place wealthy people lived. 

But what I saw of the lives there, made me realize that the family was indeed poor.

 

Memories of humble homey abodes I knew as a child flooded my mind.  None of them impressive in grandeur, but all filled with love and laughter, warmth from the very first welcome.

So what is wealth then,

if it is not what the media proclaims as a well decorated house with lovely views and gardens?  

Isn’t that the American Dream?

Perhaps the real dream is having a home that is beautiful in character

because it is filled with unconditional love, nurturing, learning, fondness for each other, and laughter. 

 

And perhaps the misconception is that you can buy things that will gain you that, as silly as it sounds. 

If I just had this couch, we would be happier. 

If only we redecorated the kitchen, then I would feel more like cooking.

 Wealth and Home are not items to be purchased,

they are byproducts of living the way God intended us to live;

selflessly, honorably, morally, lovingly.

 

“Home and family can bring us incredible wealth.  

Who can be richer than those who have shared joy-filled times, 

who have known the gifts of love and companionship,

and who carry within them a treasure chest filled with cherished memories.”

-Roy Lessin & Heather Solum in their book, The blessings of Family and Home.”

 

My husband and I were discussing this recently while snuggling on a park bench 

delighting in an ice cream cone together.  These are some of our thoughts:

Wealth is snuggling in bed with your little ones over a cup of morning coffee, trying not to spill it on the sheets.

Wealth is loving and enjoying your children like your parents love and enjoy their grandchildren.

 

Wealth is finding your marriage more passionate, intimate, and unified than when you were newlyweds

 

Wealth is being a child of the King of Kings, and an co-heir with Christ.

Wealth is having a circle of friends who know you well and like you anyway.
 

Wealth is found when home is the best place on earth. 

 

“Home is where hearts are united,

hands are joined, 

characters are formed,

truth is spoken, 

values are established,

care is given,

love serves all.”-Lessin & Solum

 A book title in a thrift store recently caught my eye, it's truth bearing proclamation captured my attention: 

Children Are What They Live.

It is of the utmost importance then, that we spend a great deal of our time and energy in our home,

making it beautiful and orderly, 

that it may be enjoyed,

making sweet memories by loving lavishly, 

promoting and teaching all that is good, noble, pure, and true.

  Every effort ought to be made to insure that the home is indeed as wealthy and full of life

as is utterly possible. 

 

The woman of the home has the most power to see that this is done,

she is the soul that is built to nurture, the one person that can make a home a haven,

 a place of rest, a refuge.

  Everything in the home that a woman touches should be 

and could be

ennobled by that touch.

 

As mothers, nurturers, cultivators of beauty, disciplers of children, ruler of our domain,

helper-completers to our husbands, 

we are ultimately; life givers.

  Shall we give little or abundantly?

Be it ever a mother's prerogative to make her home truly wealthy with  joy, beauty, and tender loving care,

instead of the alternative, unwise woman in Proverbs  14:1,

who tears down her house by her lack of delight in it. 

Taking pleasure in the homelife will gratify a soul immensely, providing peace to her household.  

“We need not power  nor splendor,
 wide hall nor lordly dome;
 the good, the true,
the tender
-these form the wealth of home.”  -Author unknown