Caring and Thinking and Planning and Working
Ray and I are busy in Nashville today. We are both reading into a microphone at a sound studio.
Because this session is twelve hours and because it begins at 9:00 a.m., we drove to Nashville last night. A twelve-hour day sounds grueling but it isn’t really. Ray is recording Exploring America and I’m recording From Adam to Us. He reads a unit of five lessons and then I read the same amount in From Adam to Us. This gives us plenty of time to rest our voices in between our sessions.
For supper last night, we chose a trendy, but reasonably-priced, burger place with locally-sourced beef. Even at 7:00 p.m. on a Monday evening, it was busy. We didn’t flinch when the hostess told us it would be 25 minutes. We’ve been there before; we know how good it is.
We filled our time with a walk in the equally-trendy neighborhood.
It’s obvious that this neighborhood was once thriving, but then saw a time of decay. In fact, one house had iron bars on the windows, albeit pretty ones. However, piles of lumber in another yard and an artsy renovation trailer beside another showed that the neighborhood is on the upswing. So did several beautiful homes which have already been renovated.
As we passed one particularly neat and pretty little house, Ray said, “That is probably some couple’s dream come true.” I assumed he meant the current owners, but he was thinking of the original owners seventy or eighty years ago.
Only a few of the houses on this street were in disrepair; most were really beautiful. They were painted pretty colors. Their porches were inviting. Their yards were well-maintained. One thing was obvious about the households that live inside. They care about their homes. they think about their homes, they plan for their homes, and they work on their homes with discipline.
Aside from one leftover “Christmas is all about Jesus” sign, we saw little indication about the kinds of homes these residents were building on the insides through the words and actions of the people living inside.
One thing is for certain though. It takes caring and thinking and planning and working to build a place called home on the insides of the hearts and lives living on the insides of those houses. Bravo to you for your own caring and thinking and planning and working to build the hearts and lives of the folks who live in your house.
The wise woman builds her house,
But the foolish tears it down with her own hands.
Proverbs 14:1
Thank you for this post. I love your comment, “It takes caring and thinking and planning and working to build a place called home on the insides of the hearts and lives living on the insides of those houses.” This is a very good reminder. The outside can look neat and clean and in order, but we need to make sure the inside is neat and clean and in order, too. I’m talking about ourselves and our children.
This is a wise reflection, Ruth.