Making Your House a Home - Where Do You Live?

Comfort from the Cottage

My husband and I own multiple properties.  We live in a mid-western city and own our primary residence, and several other properties in the city. Last year in a search for a rural place to eventually retire to we made an incredibly unusual purchase and became the owners of an old schoolhouse that had been converted into a Bed & Breakfast.  This was not exactly "paring" down for retirement.  We had a moderately successful year our first year into this business, but it became evident to me (I run the business and am the hostess, cook and chief bedclothes washer) that I needed a home nearby as I quickly became a gypsy going back and forth between our city home and country business (a 100 mile trek) as well as changing which room I stayed in based on what room was being rented since the B&B had no living quarters.  I always need my "stuff" which meant hauling food necessities for guests as well as for us, my business paraphernalia (laptop, notebooks, file folders, books...) and clothes and toiletries. I don't pack light.  Being a planner, I take more than I need to anticipate the unexpected.  To eliminate buying groceries twice I haul food between both places, but still found I left key ingredients in one home and didn't have it with me at the other.  After the first of this year we were able to purchase an adorable brick cottage owned by a sweet, beloved lady in town who had passed away.  We only made some preference changes to the home which was in amazing shape and we anticipate moving in fully very soon.  I guess you could call this our retirement home!

Until our open season starts, I'm still transporting all my worldly goods back and forth.  It can take a toll and makes you tired.  As I've been packing and readying for our move, I am excited, yet there is anxiety as I strive to keep both residences organized.  A Scripture came to mind that reminded me that my real residence was not even an earthly one.  I turned to John 14:1-4 and read over the passage:  "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am you may be also.  And where I go you know, and the way you know."   This touched my heart on many levels as I looked over the verse.  

First, I should not be troubled or filled with anxiety - about my earthly homes or the one to come.  Though my faith in God can waiver due to excessive humanness - he never fails and he tells me expressly not to be troubled.  This world does have many troubles - bills to pay, relationships to maintain, difficult people to deal with, sickness, plans going awry, snow days and not enough ingredients for that awesome Pinterest recipe I just found, planning for events, running a business, the list could go on and on.  My heart needs to stay focused on him for it not to be troubled.  He is my comfort.

Next, he has a house.  Not just a house, but a house with mansions, dwelling places, or what we might call apartments inside the house.  Our B&B sports 750 square foot rooms, but I'm thinking this space is much larger.  The word mansion really strikes me because of the size it evokes in my mind.  This is some magnificent house.  He's even prepared it for me.  I don't have to paint it, strip the floors of old carpet, re-stain the floors or pack up dishes and books and all the the do-dahs to decorate with.  It is move in ready and massive.  Not only has he prepared this home, he is going to come get me and take me to it.  I don't have to drive 2 hours, deal with traffic, fuel up or pull out the GPS (who likes dirt back roads for some odd reason).  

As much as I like making my "house" a home, sprucing it up, decorating, baking and pulling together my belongings in a cohesive warm and friendly space, I also have to clean bathrooms, sweep and mop floors, wash dishes, do the laundry and fold clothes and also do it for the guests that come to stay with our B&B.  The picture I get from this verse is one of perfect rest.  He has prepared it, he will bring me to it, and there I will spend an eternity of time with him and it will be restful, peaceful, worshipful.  He has given me the way there in his Word.  My only response it to believe.  Believe in his perfect sacrifice, his perfect life, his gospel:   his incarnation, his crucifixion, his resurrection, and his ascension.  Belief in these things leads me to obey his Word, his love letter to me that shows me how to live, and in brief - basically how to love God and love others.  It is not a fire insurance plan, it is an amazing way to live life loved more than you can imagine and with a home, a mansion that is wonderfully prepared so that for eternity, whatever trouble or strife I've endured on earth will be minimal compared to my glorious home. 

It could sound quite fantasy-full - but until you have had your heart filled with love by the Creator of the Universe I suppose it sounds odd.  I fail, I fall, I don't have a day go by that doesn't measure up to God's Word, the great thing is though is that it is not up to me. When the Lord takes residence in your heart his goodness and righteousness is what I am measured up against - not mine!  That is GOOD news, actually that is really GREAT news. So where you live and where God lives are very important.  He is able to reside in your heart through his Spirit and His Son is preparing a place for us to live permanently for all eternity that is massive and beautiful and restful - trouble free.

Many folks like to travel (I meet them at my B&B and that spurs me to make our place a restful respite from the world)....it really is fun to go on vacation...but you know that feeling when you come home?  That ahhhhh that comes from your mouth when you sit on your sofa, sleep in your bed, and are surrounded by your "things?"   They bring us comfort, make us feel safe and remind us of who we are.  The same is true of our heavenly home - it brings us comfort, makes us feel safe and reminds us of whose we are.  One day it will be amazing to see the home the Lord has prepared for me and you!  

When I was younger and had a nightmare my Mom would comfort me with the verse, let not your heart be troubled... but it has a deeper meaning now and there is so much more to the verse.  We have a home prepared for us by the master designer free from worry or care.  There's no mortgage, he has paid the price.  No grass to mow, no garage to clean out, no pipes to burst, no dirty dishes, no mis-matched socks, no alarm clock and no need to get up and exercise.  No changing weather patterns or rushing to the store for milk and bread. (Milk and honey are free I understand).

God's "welcome" mat is always out and his door always open.  I will still be traveling between homes here for a while - but I know where my permanent residence is and I won't have to pack.  
  

Comfort from the Cottage

Comfort from the Cottage

I could give you a long detailed history of 20 years of working with women in ministry, however for our first meeting I will keep this short, you will find out more as we go along.  Much of the ministry I was a part of in my local church was awesome, some of it grueling, always rewarding and sometimes a trial by fire.  I hope to take those many hours, days and years of sharing and learning and teaching and reach perhaps an even larger audience.  Some of my favorite reading lately has been with a book where the author makes you feel like you are sitting in front of her having tea or coffee and you are in a deep conversation with her.  I hope that is what you will find here as well.  There is nothing more stimulating than women helping each other be strengthened by the Word of God and seeking his wisdom in all they do.  

Being very practical, I love that the Scriptures are a guidebook for life.  They sustain me and give me strength.  They remind me that I am loved beyond imagination.  Over and over I read of God's steadfast love.  It is a comfort that I cannot live without.  Why? Because I fail miserably at life on a daily sometimes hourly basis.  Because of my past I know without a doubt that when I have walked out of God's safely zone I have ruined my life and others around me in no time at all.  (A long story for another time).  I know of God's immeasurable grace, his timeless mercy, his deep forgiveness and amazing restoration of a life gone awry.  

Without a doubt I know you can know this too.  And I hope with all that is in my heart that if nothing else, you can be encouraged and find the peace, hope and rest that comes from a personal relationship with the Lord.

I'm a Southern gal that has transplanted to the Mid-West and I live in a small town in the middle of farming and wine country and I run a Bed and Breakfast.  My husband plays in a wedding band and between our two schedules and the upcoming wedding of my step daughter there is no lack of adventure and opportunities to step out in faith and watch God work.

Our little home in our B&B town is a small cottage - a gently used, well built house.  That hopefully is what we can say about most of us!  We can be gently used of God (though we often wear ourselves out unnecessarily) when we have a well built house based on the strength of his Word.  I trust and pray that you will be fortified, uplifted, prepared, and built up for love and ministry through the comforts of this cottage and the awesomeness of God's Word...

"But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.  My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge.  With the might deeds of the Lord God I will come; I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.  O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.  So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come."  ~Psalm 71:14-18