By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. Proverbs 24:3-4
“…a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all.’ Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear, and sadness.”
J.R.R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings, One Volume (New York: HarperCollins, 1994) 225.
I saw a sign at my daughter’s home with this quote. I loved it.
It got me thinking about how the home can be a place of generous hospitality, but only if we allow space for a mixture of activities. Such a place can be a cure for weariness, fear, and sadness.
Is your house such a place? What would it take to make it perfect?
Take time to consider what is missing in your home. Read through Tolkien’s list. Is there too much noise? Are you working all the time? Lately I’ve realized I am working too much.
You can’t remodel your home overnight but you can change the environment.
Make it a place of rest and fun, work and play, talking and listening, laughing and crying, and of course, loving and sharing. Resolve to move this direction and you too will have a perfect house.