Finding Peace At Home
There is beauty all around
When there’s love at home;
There is joy in ev’ry sound
When there’s love at home.
Peace and plenty here abide,
Smiling sweet on ev’ry side.
Time doth softly, sweetly glide
When there’s love at home.
These are the lyrics from one of my favorite Hymns, titled “Love At Home”Text and music: John Hugh McNaughton, 1829-1891
I have been on a crusade the last few weeks to feel peace in my home. This came to be because I have been feeling anger, frustration, dare I even say…..a bit of…tiny bit of… hate in my heart.
Ugh.
When I feel all those emotions, I want to retreat away from my family. I don’t want to be anywhere near my kids or my husband. I want to be in my bed, as far away from them as I can be.
But that’s not what I REALLY want.
How is it that my family sees my ugliest parts? They see my real, raw, nasty truths. They see me yell. They see me when I have a temper. They see me when I say unkind things.
They see it all. And everyone else sees, sweet, kind Brooke.
That’s backwards don’t you think?
I’ve been praying to feel more peace in my home. That is my greatest goal at the moment. Peace isn’t something we find, it’s not something we stumble upon in the quietest most remote places. It’s a state of mind.
And you can’t feel it when you're consumed by other things like anger, frustration, and conflict.
And that’s just it. I’m in a constant state of conflict. Conflict with myself most of all.
I’ve had to dig a little deeper to find out why. As we know our thoughts create our emotions, so I was thinking about things that were causing me to feel this anger, frustration, and conflict.
Things like,
“He shouldn’t be doing that.”
“He’s always trying to manipulate me.”
“Why can’t they just pick up after themselves?”
“They never……”
“He always has to be right.”
“I should have done it differently.”
These thoughts my friends, these are the culprit to why I haven’t been able to feel peace in my home.
My mind is consumed with constant questioning, uncertainty, confusion.
To have peace and love at home I have to be the woman I love to be. The woman that is full of love, gentleness, and kindness.
There can’t be love at home without love in us.
And to have this love I have to let go of unserving thoughts and choose thoughts that flood myself with love.
Thoughts like,
“Aren’t I so lucky to have these adorable little people in my life?”
“I am so blessed.”
“I’m living the life I always dreamed about.”
Flood yourself with serving, love producing thoughts. Love is the greatest feeling we could ever feel. It’s not something we find. It’s something we generate with our thinking. Take a deeper look at what you're thinking, pull it all out of your brain and see what it produces for you.
Because… “Time doth softly, sweetly glide, when there’s love at home.”
