A House or A Home? Both!

Picture for the holidays at our house.

I've never been one to really like change In most situations, I've never been one to really like change. I like the feeling of being secure, and I'm more of an if it's not broke don't try to fix it kinda' girl. My husband, on the other hand, sometimes likes change, depending on the situation. We balance each other out really well, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

With that being said, there is a difference between a house and a home. A house is sticks, stones, and whatever goes into it. A home is family, love, laughter, tears, heartaches, and life with the Lord at the center of it and also leading it.

My earthly home is wherever my family is, and my eternal home is Heaven and also where I want to spend the rest of eternity with the Lord and my family. When I think of what home means to me I do not think of a building, I think of the Lord, my husband, and my kids...I think of life. On the other hand when I think of a house, the building in which we live, I think of where we are now.

As many know, Justin and I built the house we are living in now. There is some sentimental value here, we have poured our blood, sweat, tears, and very long days/evenings/nights into this place. When we bought this place it was just under roof, and we redid most of what was under roof to our liking, so we know nearly every last detail of this building. If someone were to ask us what kind of insulation is between our walls we could tell them that, or if someone was to ask us what kind of framing we have up we could tell them that, because we literally did it. While we built this place we lived in what is now our building. The building is a three room house, it has one room downstairs (which was the kitchen and where Breann slept), one room upstairs (which was our living room/mine and Justin's bedroom and it also has a huge walk-in closet, and since Troy was only three at the time we turned that into his bedroom), and there is a bathroom downstairs. For nearly a year and a half we lived in that building while we built the house we live in now. While the place has sentimental value, it also is made with quality in mind. We knew when we built this place we wanted good quality, and we built it that way, and it's a nice house. This house has became our home.

About a year ago, we bought some new property (just over 17 acres) about 10 minutes or so up the road. We love the property, it's nice and it has a great view and a lot of history (there was an old school house there). It has even crossed our mind to build another house up on that property and make that place our home. The kids like where we live now though, and, honestly Justin likes it here, and I love it here. We don't regret buying the new property, we would've still bought the property, but we are rethinking of whether we want to sell our house that we built together and build (or have built) another house upon the new property. Right now, we are thinking that keeping the house we built is in the plans right now, and maybe building us a small vacation home up at the new property is in the plans, although we are not for certain.

I think the Lord places us where He wants us in this life, if we will follow His guidance. If we will follow His lead then I know that we will make the right place our home. Right now though, I think we are seeing the house we are already living in, the one that we built, is the place that is supposed to be home, and the new property is just an added bonus for our family to enjoy (so it's a part of our home too, if not our house).

Sometimes we may have the opportunity to get wrapped up in worldly things, and the Bible tells us not to do that. Matthew 6:19-21 (KJV) reads:

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

This tells me that we need to spend as much time as possible with what matters most, that is what the Lord would have us to do. We need to follow His guidance in everything. Material goods are nothing compared to Heavenly treasures.  We need to not have material treasures on this earth as the earthly life is only temporary, we need to value what is important, the Lord and family.

Proverbs 22:7 (KJV) reads: The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

I don't feel that we would borrow a lot of anything if we were to build another house (we didn't borrow a lot when we built this house, we built this house out-of-pocket, for the most part), but I do feel that our money and our time are at stake when we start a new house project. I want to use the money that the Lord blesses us with for good purposes, and right now, the house we live in is providing our needs for shelter, it's a beautiful house and home, and it frees up our income and our time to be spent on more useful things as well.

One other Bible verse that comes to mind for this situation is Ecclesiastes 3:1 (KJV) To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. This tells me that there is a season for everything. While right now may not be a season for us to build a new house to move our family to, the Lord may (or may not) lead us to do that later on. Right now though I think (and notice I put "I think") and feel the present season is meant for us to be right where we are. We're thinking a nice vacation home at the new property would be nice. Something simple, quiet, and peaceful would be great at the new property.  The house we live in now though is beautiful and we built it, this is home.
Oh, Justin and I have been through so much together. We've shared so much of our lives together, after all, we've been married almost half of our lives. I've heard a lot of people who have gotten married young say how they wished they would've waited. I can honestly say, and I do mean honestly say, I am so very happy we got married when we did, because that just means I have gotten to share in so much of my husband's life and not just hear about it this way. We've went on many vacations, built a house together, bought land with an old school house, and so much more. Justin and I have built a life and a home together.

When I think of our house, I think of the place our kids have grew up and the place that Justin and I literally built together. When I think of our house I think of this...


Troy helping his daddy do yard work.

Our building.

Our house just under roof.

The Building of our house.

Our kitchen and living room.

The living room.

Sheetrock in the kitchen.

Us painting in the upstairs hall.

Trim.

Justin putting up the siding.

Our house.


Troy's little feet on his new carpet.


Breann's little feet on her new bedroom carpet.

When I think of home, I think of this...

When we grew our own pumpkins.


Breann with a Smores at our house.

The kids dressed up for Halloween at our house.

Troy helping garden at our house.

First day of the school year at our house.

A fun fall day at our house.


The kids and the tire swing at the new property.


Smores at the new property.
I think of home as wherever our family is!  We've built a home at our house and we're also makng the new property a part of our life, however that may be, even if it's not by building the house that we live in up there at this time.  Our house, right now, is here, life is here, at the house we built and life is wherever the Lord leads us!  I'm enjoying it and I'm looking forward to what is to come!
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