Living in a Glass House

My home is full and we are so blessed. Our friends, a family of six, have come to live with us for the summer. The youngest child is four months and the oldest will turn seven, later this summer. The comments we receive about taking another family in are interesting. People look at us like we are crazy and feel we are making a mistake. We feel the opposite. Our house is full of friends, that makes our family large.

I love to sit and visit with another young mother, who is trying her best to be the woman that God desires her to be. It is nice to share your life with others, so that you can grow and learn with them. It is good to have other children around for my boys to share and play with. It is good for my husband to have another good man around to strengthen his walk. God has blessed us more than either of us could ever have imagined and what a blessing to share our home with our friends.

I think, too often we get too possessive of our possessions and our space. I know how, to many having others live in your home would be a challenge. You have to live so that there is nothing uncomfortable about what you share with others. You have to be willing to be truly transparent and not worry about how you are living your life. We have no curtains on our living room windows and we have chosen to live this way because we do not what to hide anything. I think that many times the curtains we hang give us a sense of privacy that allows us to act in ways that are contrary to how we want others to see us. Think about it, do you treat your spouse or children the same in public, as you do in the privacy of your own home? When you pull the curtains so that no one can see in, are you really alone? Is there no one watching? How easily we can deceive ourselves into thinking that just because we cannot see someone looking into our windows, no one is watching.


We are being watched all of the time. We are watched by our children. We are watched by our spouses. When we are truly alone and no one is in the house with us, we are being watched by our Father. This is very good to remember when we are watching a movie and when we are spending time on the computer, even our thoughts are being listened to. It is very good to have others come and share their life with you for a time, this is when you can evaluate what you are doing and how you are living, behind closed doors.

But, yes when people are staying in your house you have to give up some luxuries. My luxury is writing in the morning and when the children are asleep. What an easy thing to place on hold, for the opportunity to live with others.