The Lifegiving Home: Creating a Place of Belonging and Becoming

by Sally Clarkson

This room threatened to overwhelm our usual resourceful optimism.

surrounded by beautiful things that give life to my soul.

Home was intended to be so much more than just a place of bare essentials.

“All people need a place where their roots can grow deep and they always feel like they belong and have a loving refuge. And all people need a place that gives wings to their dreams, nurturing possibilities of who they might become.”

Homemaking—not in the sense of housekeeping, but in the broader sense of cultivating the life of a home—has to be done on purpose.

One cannot build what has not been imagined.

the spirit of home is still alive in them.

to craft a truly welcoming, truly lifegiving home is a deeply satisfying work, one of the great glories of any life.

love is a kind of knowledge, and here I have none.

I think homesickness is a holy desire because we were meant to be at home, to be profoundly loved and deeply known, to belong to a people and a place where our story can unfold nourished by beauty, formed by goodness, rooted in love.

The deep desires in our hearts are the ones that echo with the eternal,

the earth began to stretch itself in the spring warmth.

The Kingdom coming into the world has to have a starting point, and I think God meant the home to be one of the primary places into which His Kingdom comes afresh, His life made known again on the scale of the everyday.

in those moments I tasted and saw the goodness of God in a way I couldn’t ignore.

every home needs someone who conducts what I call the life music of a home—its atmosphere.

Adopting the attitude that every arrival at my door is a divine appointment for me to care for others, to understand and listen to them

I see my home as a source of life to be extended to all who enter,

doorkeeper of my home,

Yet often or even daily we open our doors—usually via television or the Internet—to ideas and images that can damage our faith, abuse our hearts and minds, scar our psyches, and tear apart our peace.

soul resources that would speak to them for a lifetime.

Having a home that tells a great story happens over time as we mature, refine, create, and love.

myself instead in the color, intensity, and family presence of summer.

I did my work with far greater clarity of focus.

I believe He made the world in such a way that to tend it, to touch it, would be to know His heart.

whenever I dwell in that universe and submit my mind to its laws, I am trained to its swift, unresting pattern of information.

As author Nicholas Carr wrote, “The Internet is an interruption system. It seizes our attention only to scramble it.”[2]

To rule my time, to clear my mind was a choice of mental sovereignty, a reclamation of the direction, rhythm, and source of my thoughts so that I could root them in the people I loved and the life I wanted to create.

Familiar rhythms and routines give structure that provides leadership and personal care to all who live there. When children and guests know what to expect, they also know how to ask for their personal needs to be met and understand what part they play in the life of the home.

if I do not plan for my own personal life to be satisfying and productive, I will have nothing to offer or give to those in my care.

The more stuff there is, the more I become responsible for and the more work there is to be done . . . and so the more anxious I become.

When I am not at peace, nothing in our home is at peace.

Do I have any lingering feelings of guilt that I need to give to God? Is there any bitterness toward friends or family? Any resentment? Do any of my relationships need mending? Have I created any rifts between me and God that I need to clear up? Are there ways I have failed or disappointments I have carried that are draining my energy?

establishing positive lifetime habits is the goal for all of the areas of work, discipline, and spiritual practice.

The act of lighting the candles quieted and civilized our mealtimes.

Loving words have the power to provide hope, encouragement, confidence, and energy for the tasks of every day.

If you want everyone in your home—including the family who lives there—to feel welcome, consider how you greet them into the day.

Blessing children each night before they go to bed gives them the gift of a peaceful, restful, loved heart. No

bedtime blessing

We always talked sweetly of their beds and tried to make them seem as delightful as possible.

To love someone means to see him as God intended him. FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

God Himself was providing a sparkling celebration just for us to document the importance of the moment.

Love is the powerful energy that opens hearts to be able to hear, know, and understand the love of God, to embrace His truth and His ways.

Relationships are the starting point for others to understand what God is like and what His purposes are for us here on earth.

When all things are humorous, there is nothing in culture that is sacred or holy.

Help guests in your home feel they belong by showing them where they can find what they need—food,

discipline your spirit,

A well-chosen gift or card has the power to touch hearts in a powerful way.

“I thought of you specifically, and this gift is an act of my commitment to your value in my life.”

meaningful love memories

Teatime discipleship is really just planning focused time for those God has placed in our lives to influence with His grace.