What Your Home Really Needs To Become

Remember that song, “Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary.” We would sing it at the end of conferences and retreats in hopes that this prayer to be living temples would be solidified.

You are a walking, breathing sanctuary, a walking and breathing dwelling place of the Gospel.

When Jesus came and walked and breathed on this earth, and when he took his last breath on the cross, he breathed hope and salvation into your life.

He no longer needed to dwell in the tabernacle, because you became a living tabernacle.

During all our days at home during quarantine and isolation, many of us have spent time on our homes, in our gardens and on projects so that our dwellings would be lovely and beautiful. The time we always never had finally came through with so many possibilities. All the paint projects, the hopes for organization, the cleaning and planting became priorities and gave us purpose.

In these preparations we have created sanctuaries in our homes.

In the midst of living busy, over scheduled lives, where home was simply the place you laid down your head before the next succession of days, we began to believe that living happens outside of the home.

Our best lives were lived on vacation and at backyard parties, yet Home is where you live. Home is where you really are alive, because home is your sanctuary.

We had forgotten that Home was worthy of living in because it became a forgotten sanctuary. We didn’t spend our time at home and so instead of being a place to dwell in, it became a place to depart from.

In the same way we prayed that the Lord would prepare us to be living sanctuaries, we have prepared our homes in such a way as well.

When we leave our homes we go out into the world looking to live.

We go out looking for friendship, for beauty, for fun and food and laughter. However, if we were to create a sanctuary full of the things we are yearning for, what more would we want to seek in the world?

“...they will know that their purpose is for the kingdom and their reward is in coming home. ”

We must prepare our homes to be sanctuaries for our families and friends. We are called to go into the world, and we are training our children to leave the nest and make their way with God’s purpose so that they can be lights in that dark world.

If I have learned anything during this season of isolation, I have learned that I can prepare a sanctuary full of the goodness and the grace of God, so that when my loves go

into the world, they will know that their purpose is for the kingdom and their reward is in coming home.

We are being trained for the kingdom and in as much, our purpose is for the movement of the gospel and one day our reward will be coming home.

In this we practice even now.

Our homes should be a taste of heaven.

What your home really needs to become is a sanctuary.

A place of grace and rest. A place full of friendship and family, beauty and peace. A place you live well in, not just a place you come to.

Imagine your home filled with life.

A home your children and husband can’t wait to return to. What would that look like for you?

Imagine a home filled with friendship.

Where family become friends and friends become family. Where hearts cling together and words are full of love and encouragement. A home full of friends waiting for you after a day in the darkness, full of disillusions and discouragement; when you walk in, you are greeted with hugs and high fives and laughter.

Where people speak truth and love and grace, where you are cheered on and encouraged, filled up ready to face the next days trials. How can you fill your home with such love?

Imagine a home filled beauty and peace.

Touches of love that make you feel connected and secure. Walls filled with beautiful pictures and scripture, reminding you at every turn the truth of who you are and who God is.

Flowers on your table drawing you back to nature, lit candles reminding you of the purpose of light and warmth. A home filled with good food that you can savor, which fills more than your stomach. Where the simple scent of spices and garlic and olive oil remind you of family and traditions and simply, home. How can you fill your home with more beauty?

Imagine a home filled with rest.

A place you can rest your head and heart. Unafraid of feeling secure, so much so that you lay down your defenses and enjoy the quiet.

A place where you have no need to fight to be heard or seen, but where you can simply be and are loved for all that you are. How can you fill your home with stillness and rest?

Prepare your sanctuary. Make home a sweet dwelling place.

Make home the place you want to live in and come back to every day.

Make your home the sanctuary you need.