A House or a Home?

A couple of years ago I saw the house I grew up in was for sale. It had been for sale for a long time and I saw some pictures online of the inside - which had changed dramatically since we lived in it. So I decided to call the Realtor and ask - as a potential customer - to go through it. Fortunately, my husband agreed to go through with me. This had been the house of many warm, loving memories!

Since it had been for sale for so long - the outside was not maintained and looked horrible. When you got inside - the carpet was taken out and the walls - which had been painted off white - were maroon - and not the nice maroon. We had a lot of built in walls, closets, desks put in when we lived there that were no longer there. The fireplace, that had bookcases on either side, and a mantel that stretched across the width of the room was all gone. Only a lonely fireplace in the wall.

As we walked through the house - I was holding back the tears, never letting on that this was the house of my childhood. I wanted to buy the house and restore it. For many weeks, I could not shake the sad feeling I had. In that time the Lord was working in my life.

Yes, we could buy the house and restore it - but for what? Eventually it would be sold again. If we bought it - it would be a lot of work......to rent it out to someone that didn't love the house like I did?

Recently we went through all the videos taken while our kids were growing up and putting them on DVD. On one of the first videos was a Thanksgiving at my parents home. The home in that video was the home I grew up in. The warmth, the memories - a wonderful family - I am so blessed.