Where Is Your Heart? - No. 14

Psalm 127:3 RSV, “Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children will be like olive shoots around your table.”

Where is your heart focused, dear mother? Is it in your home? Or do other interests captivate your heart? Even if you are a stay-at-home mother, your heart can still be focused in another place.

God wants us to be physically in our homes and He wants our heart to be there too. Here is the most accurate translation of Psalm 128:3, "Your wife shall be like a prolific vine in the RECESSES OF THY DWELLING…" The Hebrew word for “by the sides of thine house” or “within” is actually ‘yrekah’ and it means ‘rear or recess’.

God wants mothers to be in the very heart of their home and He wants home to be in their hearts. The heart is the most important organ in a person’s body. If it stops beating, the person will die. In the same way, the mother is the heartthrob of her home. If her heart beats faintingly, the home will falter. If her mother heart stops beating, the home will disintegrate. It is the mother who keeps the home and her family together.

Many mothers are on the periphery of their home, rather than in the recesses. I think we can all relate to the bumper sticker, “If a mother’s place is in the home, why am I always in the car?” It’s so easy to get caught up in the rat race of society, even with children’s activities. We end up running around the city, taking our children to this and that, and the home is vacated.

Many times mothers are still out on the road in the early evening, the time when they should be at home to prepare the evening meal and make their home a sanctuary for their husband to return. They drop by for some fast food on the way and the children miss out on a wholesome meal. They miss the precious atmosphere of sitting around the table together in the sanctuary of their own home. Children’s childhood memories will consist of sitting in a car and rushing here and there, rather than the warmth and joy of their home. 

Is this God’s pattern? No, when He paints the picture of a home that is blessed of the Lord, He shows us the wife and mother in the very heart of the home, with her children all sitting around the table.

“But it is necessary for my children to be involved in all these activities,” you say. Mother, did you know that you don’t have to do what everyone else is doing? You don’t have to conform to society. Of course, there will be certain things that are important for your child or children to be involved in. But take stock. Eliminate the unnecessary. Remember the old adage, “The good is the enemy of the best!”  I know that everything your children are involved in is good, but is it the very best?

Who do you think knows best? God – or what everyone else is doing. God says that His blessing is upon the mother and children who are in the heart of the home. When your heart is in the home, you can make your home an exciting place – a place to create, a place to learn, a place to dream, a place of potential and possibility, a place of love, joy, peace and contentment.

Recently a friend joined my husband and I for our early morning walk. We enjoyed rapport together but I especially loved one statement he shared with us – “Wherever you are, be there!” Mother, you are physically in your home – make sure your heart and mind is there too. Don’t waste your time dreaming of being somewhere else. Be there with all your heart.

It takes time to make a house a home. It takes thought. It takes your heartbeat. It takes prayer. It takes being there. It takes vision. Glory in your home. Glory in your motherhood. Make it a sanctuary for the living God.

Will you be forgotten and waste away if you spend most of your time in the recesses of your home? Oh no, dear mother.  You may be hidden according to the world’s standard. However, while others are out fulfilling their own aspirations or careers for rewards that will pass away, you are training God’s children for rewards that will last forever. You are the winner! Often your days may seem like drudgery and toil, tedium and frustration, but lift up your heart. You are working for God. You are working for an eternal reward. You are determining the course of this nation.

One day, out from the recesses of your home, will come ‘arrows’ who have been sharpened and polished and who are ready to be shot from the bow – young warriors who will go forth to hold up the truth of God’s Word in the nation, who will bring back justice, and who will be a shining and bright light in the midst of this dark world. What could be more powerful?

The home is God’s chosen plan for the blessing, preservation, and continuance of the family. Put your heart, soul, and physical body into strengthening your home. 

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Dear Father, You have chosen my home to be my sphere of influence. Give me a love for being in my home. Give me a love for mothering my children in my home. Give me a vision for my home. Help me to see the creative potential that I have in my home. Help me to make my home a place where my family loves to be, and where you love to dwell. Amen.”

QUOTE:

“A father and mother living together with their children, tender in their love, pure in their lives, strong in their convictions, simple and orderly in their habits, do infinitely more than presidents and governors, legislators, educators and clergymen can do in making a strong nation. And that is a “more” that can be replaced by nothing else. True strength can come to a nation only as the genius of the home pervades the whole inner life of the people. The home nations are the most enduring nations…”

 

From Quiet Talks on Home Ideals by S.D. Gordon and Mary Kilgore Gordon.