How to Grow the Home You’ve Always Wanted

Posted on Mar 16, 2023 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Men's Christian Living, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Christie Purifoy

Do you wish your home was beautiful?

Do you want to create a space that is warm and welcoming? I have wanted that since I was a child using my mother’s hot glue gun to attach tiny wooden shingles to the plywood dollhouse my father built for me. I have wanted that since I was a young newlywed reading home and garden magazines and wishing my home decor budget were bigger—wishing I had a home decor budget, for that matter. Having now lived in quite a few homes and having sought to cultivate beauty in each of them, I have learned something surprising: beauty can’t be bought. Instead, it must be grown. It must be lived.

It is the lives we live in our homes that make them beautiful. I know this to be true, but I also know that this is not a straightforward truth. If it were, then a sink full of dirty dishes would be beautiful. A basket full of unwashed laundry would be beautiful. The pile of backpacks and sneakers my children leave daily on the kitchen floor would be beautiful. Dear reader, as grateful as I am for my family, a pile of smelly sneakers is most assuredly not beautiful. It is perhaps good. It is a sign of life, yes. But it is not the sight I want to see first thing in the morning, nor is it a sign of welcome for my guests.

When I say that our lives can make our homes beautiful, I mean that a home’s beauty is not determined by how well it follows trends or whether the kitchen countertops are made of real stone. What I mean is that by pursuing beauty with our whole selves, we will naturally surround ourselves with beauty. We will create beauty. And our homes will come alive.

I have found no surer method for bringing my own home to life than working to erase the dividing line between creation out there and my home in here. We were each made for Eden, but we have believed the lie that only a special few have the “green thumbs” needed to grow flowers, and houseplants, and whole gardens. Do not believe the lie. You, too, can root yourself in the vitality of creation. You, too, can cultivate life.

Tend a few potted herbs on the kitchen windowsill. Cut some blooming branches and bring them inside. Plant bulbs. Plant a tree! I promise, it isn’t as hard as you might think. It is in these small, intentional ways that our lives become rooted, and our homes become beautiful. Ease into the simple rhythms of a gardening life, and you will find that not only have you made your space beautiful, you have grown your house into a home in bloom.