When There's Love at Home

As a child, whenever tensions rose at our house my mother would start singing (or worse yet, make us sing with her), "When There's Love at Home."

To this day, the hymn still grates on my nerves (enter big bolt of lightening right now to strike me down - I'm sure that is not terribly appropriate to admit). There is nothing wrong with it, it just brings up memories of being annoyed at having to set aside teenage indignation to join in singing a hymn in order to forget being upset.

Today, however, I thought about it as I went about my day. Particularly the stanza that says, "Peace and plenty here abide, Smiling sweet on ev'ry side, Time doth softly, sweetly glide, When there's love at home." I was particularly reflective today, because I had a good day. I got up early, studied my Sunday School lesson over my own quiet breakfast, prayed, got the house in order, got myself ready, got dinner mostly prepped and felt good. Really good. Full and productive and ... full of peace.

The first sight that greeted me upon arriving home was Woodstock, her blonde little head in the dining room window, nose pressed to the glass (I have a new straight back chair that she has claimed as her own and has now become her perch for bird and truck watching out the front window). The second sight that greeted me was a pot of boiling potatoes on the stove. The house was mostly unchaotic (clean is a word I've wiped from my vocabulary - unchaotic is what I aim for these days). Himself was in a good mood.

I was less harried than usual thinking of dinner and bedtime routine and this and that. I failed to even have a near meltdown when the broiler element went out, leaving mostly raw chicken to be dealt with. My anxiety levels were surprisingly low, given the complicated day I had had (and the fact that even with all my careful prep, dinner was still mostly raw an hour after arriving home).

It was if God himself were saying, "You gave me some time this morning, I am going to let it fill your day," and gave me Love at Home - exactly what I needed. Peace and plenty did abide here tonight, and I'm writing it down so I remember it the next time my "natural woman" takes over, tries to be master of the universe, forgets to kneel and study in humility and wonders why the world is falling apart at the seams.

In the cottage there is joy,
When there's love at home;
Hate and envy ne'er annoy
When there's love at home.
Roses blossom 'neath our feet,
All the earth's a garden sweet,
Making life a bliss complete,
When there's love at home.

Love at home, indeed. And if having that means upping my resolve to do better at my daily study, I can certainly stand to put in the effort.