The Heart of Home
What does home mean to you?
For some, it conjures feelings of warmth and comfort—the smell of a favorite meal simmering on the stove, the melody your mom sang as she tucked you in each night, a certain spot where you’d sit to read a book, your sister’s laughter ringing through the walls, or the unique traditions that only your family knows.
For others, the word "home" stirs painful memories—places marked by pain, brokenness, or trauma. If this is your story, I am truly sorry, I know the pain. Can I offer you some hope—the cycle can be broken. You have the ability with the Lord, to break off any generational curses, stand in the gap and create a new kind of home for yourself, your children, your family, and future generations.
Home isn’t just four walls or the roof over our heads. Sure, we search for houses on Zillow, imagining our lives in those spaces. We might even have Pinterest boards filled with ideas for our dream homes—white kitchens, open shelving, exposed wood floors, and floral accent walls. Inspiration from shows like Fixer Upper can be both a blessing and a curse, pushing us to enhance our spaces or, at times, leaving us feeling like what we have isn’t enough. Have you ever been there before? I think we can all raise our hand on that one. If we focus solely on these external elements, we miss the deeper essence of what a home truly is. Could it be that God wants to restore and preserve the heart of the home? That home is more than aesthetics or décor? Yes, those things can reflect our style and great taste, but a beautifully decorated home can still lack what matters most: love, peace, joy, and the presence of God. At its core, home is about far more than what society deems important.
I moved around a lot growing up, partly because of my dad’s military career and partly due to frequent relocations. After college, I left everything familiar and relocated to Indiana, my husband’s hometown. We bought our first house after getting married, but over the next eight years, God led us to several different states before settling permanently in New Hampshire. We’ve lived in six different places—apartments, a small cottage with no insulation (which made for a very cold winter), and other houses. With each move, we longed for a place to put down roots.
During that season of wandering, God taught us a valuable lesson. Home isn’t just a physical place. It’s the people who share life with you. We realized that if we rooted our identity in a place, it could all be taken away in an instant. What mattered most was each other. Moving so frequently opened our spiritual eyes to the truth that our ultimate home isn’t here on earth either—we’re just passing through until we get to heaven. Until then, no matter where we lived, it was the love and connection between us that made it a home. And that’s what God wants us to value—people over things, relationships over possessions. Most importantly, He wants to reside there.
Home is a place to cultivate heaven on earth. We have the privilege of creating this kind of environment. It’s where our love and service must begin. If we cannot love and serve those closest to us within our homes, how can we do so anywhere else?
Some ways we learned to cultivate God in our homes as a family:
Making meals together
Sitting down and having dinner together at the table
Praying through our home, in each room, and over one another
Family devotionals
Taking communion as a family
Playing worship music in the home
Many of us have drifted from this idea of home because of our past, or because our home does not meet our expectations. I understand that for some, home is a place of pain—a prison where they feel trapped. It can be a place of loneliness, where people sit behind emotional walls, craving connection with the very people in front of them. Distractions, busyness, and screens are constantly pulling us away from being fully present in our homes. But this doesn’t have to be the case.
I want to encourage you to return to the heart of the home. We need to ask God to fill His glory and presence there. Joshua 24:15 declares, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” This should be our anthem. God longs to restore the heart of the home, to protect it, and to bring His kingdom into it. Will you let Him?
Let us remind ourselves of what the heart of home truly is and bring that vision back into our lives. Don’t wait—today is the day to pray and invite God into your home. To start new habits, or to break free from old patterns. Let’s unleash heaven on earth in our homes.
Pray with me—
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the gift of home and for the people You’ve placed right in front of me. I invite You into my home, to fill it with Your presence, power, peace, joy and love. Help me to cultivate an environment where You are honored and where relationships flourish. Teach me to value people over possessions and to focus on what’s most important. Heal the broken places in my heart and home and guide me in creating a space that reflects Your kingdom here on earth. Have your way Lord, build our home the way it should be. Show me your heart for home.
In Jesus' mighty name. Amen.
