Homes need to be places of refuge. There are few places that parallel the peace and joy that can emanate from a righteous home. It is a place where I want to be.
Sometimes though in the hustle and bustle of life, I give little heed to the state of our home. Graduate school has significantly hindered my ability to attend to our home over the past couple of years. Nothing gets fixed until it becomes a huge problem. So since I am not at home very often, I don't think about the kind of place it is or what needs to be fixed. I am not continually frustrated by a broken toilet in our master bathroom (hey, we still have a second one, right?) because I am not here 24 hours a day. I go to work.
As I left home for work this week, I thought about the state of our house (it has been a little chaotic this week) and how I didn't have to deal with broken toilet today--at least not for another ten hours. Not so for my wife, though. She wouldn't be able to leave the chaos of our home to go to a place that she has more control over (e.g. an office), where messes are made fifteen minutes after cleaning up the last one and where food and toys are not continually brought to her. Our home is her world, as it is for our kids as well. What kind of place is it for her? Where is her place of retreat?
I wonder how insensitive I have been. So much of who she is--her successes, her thoughts, her shortcomings--are evident in our home. I could do better to make it a place of retreat for her as well as for me and our children.
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