Jill Savage - My Hearts at Home: Becoming the Intentional Mom Your Family Needs

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Verses marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Cover by Garborg Design Works

Cover photo Time and Again, Reed Family Photography, East Peoria, IL October, 2006

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MY HEARTS AT HOME

Copyright 2007 by Jill Savage

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Savage, Jill, 1964-

My hearts at home / Jill Savage.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7369-1826-8 (pbk.)

ISBN-10: 0-7369-1826-4 (pbk.)

1. HomeReligious aspectsChristianity. I. Title.

BR115.H56S28 2007

248.4dc22

2006021483

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

What do you think of when you hear the word home? What images and emotions come to mind? This is something to ponder, for these images and emotions have the power to shape your life, to give it meaning, to tell you who you are.

THOMAS KINKADE

M y husband, Mark, and I walked through the well-lived-in farmhouse marveling at the size of the rooms. There was a lot of space: large kitchen and dining room, good-sized family room and living room, one bedroom for an office, a small bathroomand that was just on the main floor.

Upstairs were five bedrooms! Yep, five bedrooms...and no bathroom. One small bathroom on the main floor for our family of six? Well, of course this house needed some work. What farmhouse wouldnt? And what would it take to add a bathroom upstairs? No problem. But that wasnt all. It was not only a perfect house, but it was in a perfect location: smack-dab in the middle of cornfields and yet only two and a half miles from Wal-Mart. What more could we want? Our dream to live in the country was going to finally come true.

We made several trips to look at this house with our Realtor. On the final trip, we were determining what we were going to offer the seller when another Realtor and interested party stopped by. They asked if we minded if they took a quick tour of the home, even though we were present. We told them to go right ahead. As the Realtors client stepped through the entryway into the kitchen, he said, This place is a pit. I dont want to see any more. They walked out of the house and then Mark and I looked at each other and laughed. We didnt see the liabilities of this old farmhousewe saw its possibilities!

We signed the papers and, with the help of friends and family, set to work, determining to do most of the renovation before we moved in. Our four children ranged from ages twelve to nine months. We decided the best strategy was for Mark to work evenings and weekends at the house and I would get a sitter occasionally so I could help him, but ultimately I prepared myself for full kid duty twenty-four hours a day for however long this took.

It took four months.

We tore out all of the carpet because the entire house needed new floor coverings. We uncovered pocket doors that had been closed off years ago. We painted woodwork that was already painted and cleaned and stained woodwork that was still in its natural state. We washed and painted every wall and ceiling. We tore out the plumbing for the only bathroom because the floor had rotted and we feared someone might just sit on the pot one day and fall through to the cellar.

But that wasnt all. We still had the no bathroom on the second floor problem, so we made a decision to tear off the entryway and a small enclosed porch, pour a new foundation, and add a two-story addition: a small room and an entryway on the main floor and a laundry room and a bathroom on the second floor. We also decided that because there was no garage, we would add an attached garage off the back of the house.

We didnt hire anyone to do the construction workwe did it all ourselves with the exception of hiring an electrician and contracting someone to pour the foundation.

It was a lot of work.

I often think back to that time in our life nearly ten years ago. We had a dream and we had the vision to see the dream come true. When we looked at the house, we didnt see it for what it was. We saw it for what it would become.

There was another construction project we were managing even while constructing and reconstructing our new home: We were building a family. We had a dream and the vision to see that dream come true as well.

Many of the home-building experiences weve had with our farmhouse have mirrored the experiences weve had building our family. Sometimes weve had to tear down an old structure that we carried with us from our families of origin and build something new and different. Sometimes weve had to start from scratch and build a completely new structure within our family because we have a vision for something different than either of us have ever known. In both cases weve had a plan, and weve carried out that plan with intentionality.

When we renovated, we drew up blueprints to help us visualize the new part of our home. Seeing the details on paper kept us on track and working toward the same goals. In the same way, weve needed a blueprint for our family. Similar to the steps in building a home, there are foundational elements we need to have in place so we can build a strong family structure. Once the foundation is poured, we begin to build the framework, and eventually we put on the finishing details.

But what makes a house a home? Its the family dynamics of the people who live in that house that makes it a home. When we value being home and recognize all the roles that home plays in our life, we can provide a secure, loving environment for each member of our family.

Hometheres a warmth about that word. Its associated with love and security. Its a place where we are known, accepted, and celebrated. But a house isnt what we are really drawn toits the memories, the feelings we experience that draw us home. And a house cant provide memories itselfits the people, the family that draws our heart to home.

Our neighborhoods are filled with broken hearts and broken homes. Many of us came from broken homes and broken families, longing for something different for our own family but not quite knowing how to get there. We know home is important because we can identify the qualities that we experienced or longed for as a child. Now that we have our own families, we need a blueprint to help us build and/or renovate our home and family.

My Hearts at Home is designed to help us understand all the roles that home plays in our life:

Home as...a safe house