The heart of the home

When Daughter # 3 went into the hospital last Thanksgiving her family moved back in with us for awhile.

I think that was God’s medicine for my sore heart. With two small boys always demanding attention I didn’t have time to indulge the sudden tears that still rise sometimes.

I’m afraid I resorted to screens though… 

Although we also enjoyed Jacquie Lawson’s virtual Advent Calendar – a friend’s gift to me – between Thanksgiving and Christmas the boys and I watched an astonishing number of Hallmark Christmas films.  

On the whole these movies were not memorable. And I finally decided I must be watching them for their themes of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Still, occasionally there was a line or two really worth remembering. I wish I’d had a pen ready the night we watched the one with that insightful line about how the kitchen table should be the heart of the home.

It is the heart of our home.

And I’m grateful for all the candlelit suppers we shared with the Okada family during the holiday season.

They’re back in their own home now. But the boys still join us every Saturday night. And we still light candles in the evening and sing in the morning.

Here we come Thy name to praise

Let us feel Thy presence near

May Thy glory meet our eyes

While we in Thy house appear

Here afford us Lord a taste

Of our everlasting feast….

- Safely Through Another Week