the purpose of home

Yesterday we talked about the purpose of our home.

Take those words. The ones you thought of after reading yesterday’s post, and look around your house.  Do the words you choose describe the space? Start with one room, maybe the family room.  Are you accomplishing the goal you have for that room?

Here are some of the words that we said we wanted our home to feel like:

what is home

There’s no right or wrong answer for the purpose of YOUR home–YOU get to decide.  But I have noticed something…

No one ever says they want their home to feel unwelcoming.  Or cold or unfriendly or unaccepting or harsh or lifeless or have a sense of fear. No one ever says they want their home to be boring or vanilla or average or store-bought.  No one wants their home to be stressful. Believe it or not I don’t think I’ve ever heard any real, non-TV person say they want their home to be prettier than all their friends and full of the nicest, most perfect specimens.

But sometimes we approach decorating and designing in a way opposite to how we hope our home will feel. We make decisions as if we are being graded. We are afraid to create the home we’ve always dreamed of because we are afraid of being judged or laughed at or mocked.  We worry and fret and procrastinate and ultimately waste years not enjoying home and making our family miserable along the way as we whine and complain and wish and verbalize our disappointment in our home.

Not that I’ve ever done that or anything.

The purpose of your home isn’t about the stuff, it’s about the people. The people who live there, the people who come there.

A home’s greatest purpose is to serve people. Amen.

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This is the 3rd post in a 31 Day Series: Home. On purpose. Start from the beginning here.

Over 1100 bloggers are joining in writing a 31 Day series, find a few that interest you and check them out.