My then 18 year old son, David, told my wife and me that he wanted to talk out in the outdoor living room. My wife and I sat down in our wicker coach, and he took a seat on the porch swing. “Mom and Dad, I’ve decided that I want to get married.”
Not longer after, he married our daughter-in-law, Nicole from Colombia, at the Sun Outdoors Conference Center where our church met weekly. Then, they moved into . . . my basement. This wasn’t what they wanted. Waiting lists for apartments in Gatlinburg, TN were about six months wherever they applied.
The wait was only five months, and those five months turned out surprisingly well. We learned to really love our new daughter-in-law deeply, and the marriage was working. However, when the Riverwalk Apartments down the street called and said that they had an opening, nobody hesitated.
The day David and Nicole moved into their one bedroom apartment was a special day. I was amazed at how excited they were. They were renting their own apartment! Nicole was crying and then laughing, high levels of emotional expression, even by Colombian standards.
It made me think, what if I could look at my own house that way each day? I really love my house. It sits on a cul-de-sac on .5 acres of unique wooded land that terminates at a creek in a gulley. It has beautiful wood floors, a large bay window, beautiful built-in shelves, a well-crafted fireplace, and many other features. It is 2,500 square feet. Outside, we have a large three-level deck. We turned our carport into an outdoor living room that we love. We have a firepit. We have a pool. It’s in a quiet neighborhood, but it’s in the middle of everything. Beyond that, it sits on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and one of the great vacation destinations in our nation.
Many students from Turkey, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, among others, have come to our home for parties, food, and fellowship. They love our home. They take pictures. They call their mothers and show them the house and neighborhood on their iphone. When I visited some of their countries, I understood why. Not many have neighborhoods are like this. Even the nicer homes often do not have the land that I have or the space that our home has. It is a new experience for them.
What if you could learn to see your home like those students did on their first sight of it? Or the first day you bought it? What if you could feel each day the excitement of having a place to live like David and Nicole did when they moved into their apartment for the first time?
Having a home is a huge blessing. It’s easier to see that on the 1st day than the 100th day. Even if your house hasn’t turned into The Money Pit, it’s easier to see the problems than the blessings, but the basic blessings are still there: the space, the yard, the views, the rooms, the kitchen, the living room, the outdoor spaces. You can learn to enjoy that every day. You can learn to be grateful for your home like you were on the fist day you got it.
You can do the same thing with everything else. What about a car? What a blessing it is to have a car! If our ancestors rode in a car, they would think it was the most exciting experience of their life! With a little imagination and thought, we can feel some of that excitement as well.
We can see the friends, the children, the spouse, the clothes, the experiences, the parents, and the church that we have like the first day we realized we had them. If we do, we will take the good things we have more deeply into our minds and hearts. This will fill us with joy that will help keep us sane in an insane world.
Thank you for taking a moment out of your day to read this article. I hope it will help you see more deeply the good things you have (without ignoring the bad). If this has been helpful to you, please share it on social media. You can also receive future articles right in your email box by subscribing below.