Welcome to Week 4 of Resetting the Rhythms of Life. Only one more week left!

I hope the last three weeks have encouraged you to renew your prayer life, reclaim family time, and refocus your attention on habits that will contribute to resetting your rhythms of life. 

When my life feels overwhelming and imbalanced, and when I grow weary from being too busy with schedules and commitments, my home tends to get neglected. I like a neat and tidy home, but when I get behind, I become paralyzed. My smallest efforts seem pointless, and I wonder if I’ll ever catch up. I end up procrastinating and feeling worse about my home and myself.

Does this sound familiar?

If so, I would like to spend our last week refreshing our homes. I don’t necessarily mean decluttering and organizing. That will hopefully come later. What I’d like to do is refresh how we think about our homes, how we tend to them, how we care for them, how we abide in them … Through prayer and reflection, I pray our motivation to nest, clean, and decorate will increase. But for now, I want us to simply ponder and consider “home.”

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Rediscovering Joy in My Home

Going through a season of burnout and overwhelm, I became depressed. I lost my ability to keep up with it all: the cleaning, the cooking, the errands. I was doing the bare minimum, but the little extras I used to do to make my house a home got lost in my weariness.

Eventually, I lost my joy. And I didn’t really know what to do to get it back.

Losing my joy was almost like experiencing amnesia. I forgot how to organize, manage, and keep up.

Even when I came out of the deeper part of my depression, I was paralyzed by the amount of catch-up work I had to do. I was at a stand-still for a long, long time.

As I struggled with this, I prayed. I confided in a friend.

Slowly, I started desiring to make my house feel like a home again. I wanted to add warmth and create peace. I wanted my home to be a place for my family to abide, dwell, and rest.

But I felt a little guilty for wanting to make things cozy. After all, there were laundry piles and paper stacks to tackle. I was behind on so much, I certainly couldn’t begin with what I desired to do, could I?

I concluded that God placed the desire to cozy-up my home on my heart. As a starting point for the harder tasks ahead. To push through my paralysis and gain momentum.

And it worked! It was so therapeutic to decorate the little corners of my home. I rediscovered my joy.

Scripture Reading

Take a few moments to quiet your heart. Breathe in and out.

Read today’s Scripture verse.

“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.” —John 15:4

After reading the verse once, read it one or two more times.

What stands out to you? A word, feeling, thought …

Journal Prompt

More than any place on earth, our dwelling place is with God. We find rest in Him, when we dwell with Him.

How does this truth settle into your soul? No matter what your home looks like at this very moment, can you find peace in your true abode being a Person, not a place?

Now, consider your home. Consider your family. How can you use this verse as a launching point for creating a peaceful dwelling place for you and for them? Can you replicate the peace? What does it look like? How does it feel?

Close your eyes and imagine … What room would you start in? Where do you want to create refreshment, sanctuary, and cozy warmth?

Journal your ideas … Can you do one thing today to refresh your home? Maybe light some candles, bring out a few extra blankets, string twinkle lights across your mantle. Nothing fancy, just warm and homey … abiding.

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord, Thank You for inviting me to abide in You. I am so grateful for the dwelling place You offer me. I feel safe and secure in Your arms. Lord, I long to create that same ambiance for my loved ones. My house can get overwhelming at times. We have too much stuff, and there’s so much to do. Despite the work that is ahead of me, help me to create pockets of coziness and joy, a place for my family to find refuge and peace. Amen.

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This is part of a 31-day series on resetting the rhythms of life. To read more about this series and see each day’s posts, click here. Photo: Unsplash