Heart

What is it that creates a home?
Home (adverb): to a vital sensitive chore
Home (noun): one's place of residence

What do you believe is necessary to have an "established" home? Is it the size?  Is it the work placed into it? Does the interior or the exterior matter more?  What makes a home: comfortable? Stable? Secure? Safe? 

Is it necessary for every person to have their own room?  Do you think that there should be a dining room? 




The reality is that each home is different, and yet we create homes often "cookie-cutter" in appearance.
 
The LARGER the better?
 When one looks at the exterior of a home, there are presuppositions established.  You might turn to your spouse and state: Look at the size of that house!  Our entire house would fit in their entry way!  Although that may simply be an observation, often this is done with a slight bitterness or resentment for their seemingly successful lifestyle.
Is this true?  Does that family have it together?  The reality is their house is so big they could go weeks without even seeing another member of their family.  The reality is their house is so big that they cannot even do entire "dusting" in one day.  Imagine! What stress...I can barely stay on top of what I already must clean, much less a house triples or greater!


"Small"  means close knit?
I think that many believe that the smaller the house, the more close knit the family.  Although this seems realistic, because then your a forced to interact.  The matchbox size bathroom requires maneuvering and sharing of the pinpoint mirror.  The very art of spitting out toothpaste while dogging the hairspray fumes, and avoiding seeing the individual desperately trying to shower in the last ounces of lukewarm water.



Does the size of the home create the bond of the family?  I think most individuals would state: No.  The home is simply a tool that can possibly increase the desire for intimacy as a family.  In can be the place where family gathers, but it can also be a place where no one truly feels safe. 
How tragic for the people in the world who find that the place that should be safest, is the thing which they dread.  School is the safe place.  Work is their haven.  Without prayer, patience, proactive interaction, and a penitent spirit: no home will truly create a unifying family.