Throughout history the home has been a place for people to come together and do life together. There was a time and a place where neighbors would walk in without knocking, And friends would show up without an invitation, and yet they were always welcome. In most Eastern countries this is still the norm today. But not so much in the West. In fact some of you read that statement above and got anxious just thinking about it.
Minnesota is the home of the Minnesota Institute Of Art, and about once a year we take our kids to explore it as part of our homeschooling curriculum. They have multiple wings where there are period rooms set up from homes of that region or period of time. Those sections have either red ropes, or plexiglass dividers so that the patrons won’t touch any of the artifacts in the room.
I wonder if when we hold fast to trying to give the appearance of our home always being put together, or we ourselves always “seem” to be put together. I wonder if we have inadvertently put red ropes or plexiglass around our lives, not ever really allowing anyone truly into our lives? They can look, but not really touch our hearts.
The other day we had friends scheduled to visit from out of town. And of course like normal we called all hands on deck to come and help tidy up. Everyone had their job to do and since we moved to a smaller space we were able to knock it out in under an hour. Yeah!
Our friends too have a bigger family, with 5 kiddos that match the ages of our own kids pretty well. We had a wonderful time together and they stayed for about 5 hours or so. When it came time to say our goodbyes the wife said, “So sorry to leave your house in shambles!” I said, “This is how it always is because we are doing life together.” And you know what, she wasn’t shocked. She even said, “This is how our house is all the time too!”
I say this tongue and cheek a little bit, because society would like us to believe that you are normal if your home looks like it fell out of Pintrest Heaven all the time. And the reality of it is that is simply not true. In fact there is a new trend on Instagram of people showing their home put together and then showing how it really looks on a day to day basis. While a sing-songy voice says, “I don’t know if anyone has told you, but the internet isn’t real.”
If you missed my blog from last week you should really check it out you can find it HERE. In a nutshell, it is about when we have people over to our home the goal shouldn’t be performance, it should be about caring for them.
Do you remember what I said to our friend who was visiting? , “....It looks like this, because we were doing life together.” When you do life together, you eat together. Dishes get dirty, food falls on the floor, and lemonade gets split. When we play together, toys get dumped, forts get made, and crafts are created. And in those moments the mess stops being a mess, and starts becoming memories.
I challenge you to take down the red ropes, and the plexiglass dividers and start to allow people to come in. It might be messy, but it will be worth it.
Join our Buyer 101 or Seller 101 Class. Learn about our family devotional Foundation Of Character
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