Living Room

When I was a ”tween” (about 12 years old) I had two good friends whose houses were very different. In some ways, I was really envious of the one house. It was so beautiful and decorated with embroidered towels that matched in the downstairs bathroom and rooms that were color-coordinated. It was quite a difference from our house with furniture that was partway through raising seven children and cats. My best friend’s house was very different – more like my own with a kind of casualness about it. It was nice but comfortable.


There was no contest as to whose house I would rather spend time at. We were never allowed to play downstairs in the beautiful house. We never did get to be in the living room with its white carpet, white furniture, and crystal bowls and lamps setting on the tables. We would come in and take our shoes off and quietly go upstairs and remain quiet.


At the other house, there were usually cookies available for snacks and her mom was ready to join in anything we had going. Once, we decided to put on our own neighborhood ballet of Cinderella and she joined us in helping to make costumes, taking the time to teach us how to sew tutus out of bias tape and crepe paper. I still remember the saying she had hanging in the entryway: “my house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy”. It fit my own mother’s philosophy of home-making and became my own.


Mom taught me (very wisely) that the time to sit and read a book to a child was now because too soon they would be “too big” for such cuddles. From her (and now proved by my children) I learned that children will remember playing games, baking cookies, and singing songs. They remember how the Christmas tree shone at night and hanging their favorite childhood decorations and taking time to share the Christmas Carol.


A current magazine has yet another article on how to take the minutes we spend waiting in line, or for an appointment or between tasks and use them to their fullest. We should take this time and instead of “wasting it”, the article shows how to use this time to write lists, organize our days, write cards, doing exercises, or clean and organize in tiny steps. I got exhausted just reading the article. Whatever happened to taking time to smell the roses or see a sunset?


Our lives have gotten so full and busy and instead of giving us more time to spare, technology seems to be taking all of our free time away. Not only are many of us tied to our cell phones everywhere we go, talking isn’t enough; people do email, text messages and the internet. Our society seems to be developing so that people are to be instantly and always available whether we are at work, at home, in the car, and even in a public restroom. Not only our weekdays but our evenings and nights and weekends are also organized and often frantically busy.


So I was wary when I read in Ephesians “Be carefull then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time…”(Ephesians 5:15-16). It sounds like it could have come right from the magazine article. But what Paul goes on to describe as the will of the Lord is to “be filled with the Spirit” singing psalms and hymns… making melody in our hearts and giving thanks to God. These are activities that require us to be apart from the hustle and bustle of business, breathe deeply to sing and take time for faith. Jesus models a relaxed lifestyle for us and the disciples when in Mark he invites, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile.” (Mark 6:31) It seems that our spiritual health as well as our physical health need refreshment. Not only our homes but our hearts need to have the time and space to be “lived-in”. Read Ephesians 5:15-20.