Three Years of Home

Three years ago today, we left our first home and moved to our own home ~ one we designed ourselves, had built by a friend, and which was not complete when we moved in. But we have spent the last three years nurturing, training, and fellowshipping with one another in this home, and we have worked to finish some things in the house along the way. But the best part? That this house is a place we have made our home, by God’s grace and provision. We designed this house to be a place of hospitality ~ primarily for our family, specifically for our children ~ but also for friends, brethren, neighbors. Just last month we had thirty people from our new church over to eat and sing with us, and we’ve had four different families over for meals and a few playdates too. Just in the last month. Because the Lord is good! And because we have a home which we want to use for His service, blessing His people, and nurturing the people He has put in our care.

Home.
A place of rest while we are on this earth.
A safe place for our children.
A place to love and be loved.
A place that is beautiful.
A haven.
With enough money, anyone can create a pretty house.
But it takes intention to create a home.
~Myquillyn Smith, The Nesting Place, p181

THEN (2011):

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NOW (2014):

P1180944 P1180948 P1180949  P1170805

One of my top priorities for my home is for it to be a place of beauty. Notice I didn’t say I want my home to be perfect. Also, I really don’t care for it to be expensive. Beauty is something altogether different. I’ve yet to meet a woman who wants her home to be ugly. Enjoying beautiful things is part of being human. It is how God made us.
~Myquillyn Smith, The Nesting Place, p68

Proverbs 14:1
The wisest of women builds her house,
    but folly with her own hands tears it down.

If you stay anywhere long enough, it will start to accumulate some shadows.
And those shadows make it no less beautiful. It makes it something like home.
It anchors you there in ways that a steady diet of pleasantness never will.
~Shauna Niequist, Bread & Wine, p235

Proverbs 24:3-4
By wisdom a house is built,
    and by understanding it is established;
by knowledge the rooms are filled
    with all precious and pleasant riches.

One Reply to “Three Years of Home”

  1. You moved in right before Thanksgiving! 🙂 We moved back into our house around the same time of year too. It was wonderful having our new kitchen etc… for our big Thanksgiving meal. I love the look of your house; you have great taste and know how to make a house a home!

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