Mom Heart Moments #60

The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish tears it down with her own hands.

OUR ENTIRE FAMILY HAS BEEN captivated by the care and intentionality George Vanderbilt put into creating the Biltmore Estate, a place of great beauty and uniqueness that would serve as a refuge and resource for all who lived and visited and worked there. A great structure never just accidentally comes into being. It starts with careful planning and prep work —acquiring permits, hiring professionals, sourcing materials and fixtures, drawing up blueprints. Then comes the hard work of construction —board by board, brick by brick, paint for each room, adding all the beautiful details that make the home unique.

This great work of home building is a long-term construction project that takes what sometimes seems like endless years of care and hard work. In particular, the formation of the children of a family —nurturing excellent souls, filling minds with truth, inspiring hearts with the purposes of God, instilling a taste for God’s goodness and beauty —requires planning and intentionality.

I also see motherhood as akin to being a home decorator. My job in my family involved setting the tone: celebrating life by bringing color, music, and beauty into every aspect of our home; gathering great, hopeful stories through books; cultivating wonderful memories with friends through parties and Bible studies, meals and traditions; lighting candles in the darkness and playing music to lift our souls. Purposefully inserting goodness and beauty into the moments of our days became a primary goal, so that our living would reflect the reality of what we believed about God.

What kind of “house” do you want to build in your life? This can be anything from your actual home to your spiritual heritage or even something personal to you. List at least three tools you have for constructing your spiritual/emotional home.