A house or a home?

Home is any four walls that enclose the right person. (Helen Rowland)

Take notice that Ms. Rowland did not say the right home makes the person. I think we spend way too much time focusing on the walls, bricks, mortar, and furnishings, sometimes to the neglect of the individual who resides within. The 'right person' within the four walls - regardless of their color, condition, or size - that is what makes a home. Perhaps it is time we focus on becoming the 'right person' instead of on having the 'right home'.

I will try to walk a blameless path, but how I need your help, especially in my own home, where I long to act as I should. (Psalm 101:2)

What are you inside the walls of your home? How do you act there? Is there a difference from the way you act 'in public' view? There are times each of us 'acts' just a little differently when our 'public face' is on versus when we are within the confines of our own 'personal space'. I know we have to be professional in the workplace, presentable in public, and polite with peers. That isn't what I am talking about here. I am referring to the genuineness of our character - within the walls of our home and outside those walls.

Become the right person inside those walls and you will be the right person without them! Spend time with the right person within those walls and you will be transformed! Jesus isn't just to be a guest in our house - he is to be a welcomed family member - the leader of the family. If you are a family of one like me, it is good to know there is someone else in control; that I don't have to do it all on my own. Who we become really depends on who we welcome into our home. 

A 'welcome' member of our family is received with pleasure - there is enjoyment in their presence. They are cherished and desired. We are grateful for their presence and delight in what they bring into our home. Can you say this is how you treat Jesus within your home? If so, you know how much his presence actually begins to change the way you make decisions, the things you dwell upon in your thought life, and the words you accept as truth. Jesus never asked to be a visitor - he asked to be welcomed, appreciated, cherished, and desired more than anything else in our lives. 

The walls don't make the home - it is the person within those walls. When that person is guided by the Holy Spirit, built up by the Word of God, and overflowing with heartfelt worship, the home is being built. Not from without, but from within. Just sayin!