A Prayer for the Home

I love having a home. Humble though it is, it is the place our family gathers every day for rest, protection, learning, creativity, and relationship with each other. In many ways, home is where are most ourselves, where our true colors shine through. Sometimes that’s a good thing. Other times? Well, let’s just say that sometimes those closest to us can expose our sinful attitudes very quickly. Ha!

I love having a beautiful home. While my home is certainly not fit for an interior design magazine, in it, we are surrounded by things that make us happy. I believe that God puts within women a desire for beauty, creativity, and artistry, and our homes are where those desires are expressed best. It’s why I’m constantly looking for ways to beautify, create order, make more comfortable, and create peace in our home. Thankfully, there are a million and one online and print resources for that. From decorating magazines to Pinterest to design blogs, you can easily access beautiful photos and tutorials to inspire you in your own home. And that can be a good thing.

But ladies, here is what I also know: sometimes those very homes that God gives for rest, protection, and love can become idols. I know it can for me, and I’d be willing to bet that it can for you, too. Too often, we let our homes define us. We allow a material blessing to determine how we feel about ourselves. We measure our status, and all too often the status of others, by the way our home looks. Listen, I speak from experience on this. When my home is clean and nicely decorated, I feel like I’m doing a great job as a wife and mother. And when it doesn’t meet my expectations, I feel like a total dud. That’s when I know that my home has become a god. When I find my worth in the material blessing of a home instead of in the Giver of that blessing, my home has become an idol to me. It’s so easy to do, so I constantly have to guard my heart against it.

Am I saying that it’s wrong to desire a lovely home? I’d hope from the many “beauty in the home” posts I’ve written that you know I don’t believe that. A beautiful home is a blessing that God gives for us to enjoy. However, when we let our homes tell us what we’re worth, we open up a whole host of other issues that God doesn’t intent for us to bear. Let’s keep it in perspective.

Lord God, our home is among the most precious gifts we receive in this life. We realize this all the more as we remember our Lord Jesus. He set aside home and family. Having no place to lay His head throughout His ministry, He chose to sojourn among those He came to save. We prayerfully invite Him to dwell in our earthly abode even as He continually invites us by Word and Sacrament to dwell forever in our heavenly home, which He prepares for us.

Grant us the virtue of hospitality, the joy of harmonious living, and the blessing of gathering around Your Word and bringing our family’s prayers before You. May all who dwell in our home be blessed by Your presence and Your peace, and may all who go forth give thanks for the grace they received from You through us, Your dear children. We receive Your loving-kindness in our home as a reminder of the eternal home we inherit through Your Son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. (Prayer taken from the Lutheran Book of Prayer.)