Robert_Thegerström_Lättja

Robert Thegerstrom; Lattja

This picture makes me long for a mountain breeze, a deep hammock, a cup of tea, an engrossing book and an open-ended afternoon.

I can probably swing one of those, the open-ended afternoon being perhaps the most elusive of the four. But one can dream!

In many ways these beautiful classic art pieces are evidence of ideals I have in my own life. Perhaps they're indicative of the way I wish life were, more often than it actually is. Perhaps you, too find yourself longing for life to be more settled, more peaceful, more predictable, more tame than you find it.

As I wrote several years ago in my book, The Mom Walk ...

"I am a deeply romantic woman, always yearning for a picture-perfect home--fires on the hearth with feasts and laughter nearby, pleasant and gracious conversations, an ambience of beauty and peace. I write about my ideals. I breathe my ideals in the secret moments of my life. I want a picture-perfect marriage where I am adored and appreciated. I want my children to be healthy, happy, and harmonious. I want strong friendships and a stable community with friends. I want an extended family to be close to us and to provide my children with love and support and lots of godly input. I want there to be money for all the bills, a home that isn't always exploding with messes, and time to sit and read a good book and ponder life.

These longings are not wrong. Ideals and the desire for beauty are simply the echoes of God's design in our hearts. He was the one who designed the world to be a masterpiece of wonder and life. The yearning for peace, health, and comfort is natural to our souls and comes from the depths of our hearts where we can still feel and imagine what God created life to be before the fall."

I think God is the biggest Idealist of all. He created everything in a perfect state, and someday He will "restore all things." (Acts 3:21.) I think He understands my heart's longing for a beautiful life and fulfilling relationships.

I think He feels just the same way I do. When I long for life to line up with His ideals, I reflect His own heart. When I create pleasing settings, soothe ruffled feelings, play beautifully crafted music, offer grace to a tired and cranky child, or prepare a hearty meal that fills stomachs and enriches souls as we share ideas around the table, I remind those who share in the moments with me that we are, indeed, sons and daughters of a King, meant for more than workaday life in this broken world.

Though I still wish for an "Anne of Green Gables" neighborhood, where friends come by and sit on my porch over a cup of tea to talk, and my children have only a g-rated world in which to live, I can still craft my own home to be such a sanctuary. And when my children store these pictures of moments shared in the treasure chest of their hearts, they are more likely to always remember what they were made for and how to hold fast to His ideals their whole life.

How can you remind those around you, today?

Blessings,

Sally