I've been thinking about this for a long time. I knew I wasn't nailing it all along last summer while I prepared to give the workshop. And then, the moment it was over I knew what I had really wanted to say and couldn't figure out how to. What a fiasco. I still lay awake at three in the morning sweating about it sometimes. Finally, I've had to drop it, to just stop the me-ism of looking back. It doesn't fix the chagrin and agony anyway, and it certainly doesn't get it said, at last, either.
I don't want to redecorate your houses even though some of you express appreciation of mine by suggesting that. Anyone can and should decorate their own house.
Listen, if I can figure this out in my own little world at home, you can, too, in yours. It depends on how worthy your home is to you, mostly. And your home is worthy, because you are.
I told you about our funny old house at the workshop. I said how I had elbow grease, paint, and a rather trusting husband for whom and to whom I am most grateful. And no money. You heard all my noises about the oddities we have to work with: old windows, unsquare-ness of the house in general, even the nice bit of curb appeal.
But what I wanted to tell you was to take your living room, for instance, and make it beautiful and functional. And memorable, too. And I wanted to tell you that the Lord helped me through from the seemingly impossible to where we are today, of being grateful for what is, even the unconventional and awkward about our house.
It's not called a living room by accident. Some call it the family room. In medieval times the most lived in and used room was called the great hall. It doesn't really matter what you call it, I'm referring to the the most lived in room at home, other than the bedrooms.
We gather there after supper, or after work, and after dark in summer. Chairs, couches, books, games, the fireplace, instruments for music, our computers, collections, projects, and hobbies all find their places in the living room. Because we live there. And it piles up, and spills over, and accumulates. Some of us like to carry our plates of supper food with us to our favorite chair in the living room and pull up our book or movie to continue while we eat. So yes, there's probably dirty dishes there, too, sometimes.
Or maybe it's devoid of anything that a living room should have. So far, it's a space for a living room, but the rest is inarticulate. Explainable, but disorganized. Nobody at home loves the room, but it's what there is.
Size doesn't make much difference, really. We fill any space with our living no matter the size or convenience. We could use a house maid, right? Or maybe just a weekly cleaner to come make sense of it. I can tell you that we, ourselves, are the only ones who can actually make a house ours and sharable and beautiful. If we want to.
We already have everything needed to make this happen. So please don't go shopping. I think it is safe to say that we have too many things already, that part of our discontent with our surroundings are because we need less, not more.
And when we have created the room of our dreams, it becomes an adventure of maintenance. We get to "dress and keep" the room as long as we live there. Because we live there. But it's always changing. Children grow up and move away. But, some of their things don't move away with them. Our guests come and go. The grandchildren have a way of thinking that they belong in our living room. And they do, thank you , Jesus. We grow older and need changes. We should be prepared to tackle decorating over and over the rest of our lives.
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