Heather Peets penned our post for this week. Be sure to head over to the contributor’s page to learn more about her!

As my husband and I have pursued a life of ministry, we’ve lived in some less-than-ideal homes. Though I can laugh about it now, it was not at all funny when, during my husband’s seminary days, termites infesting our Texas townhouse ate my college-teaching notebooks and my leather-bound Scofield Bible. It was a nightmare to sit up late with my newborn daughter and watch cockroaches climb across the floor and up her baby swing. 

When my husband accepted a pastorate after seminary, our apartment in a New Hampshire farmhouse seemed ideal until we realized that giving four little children baths in a giant bucket—because there was no tub—was a chore. The farm was a busy place with dangerous equipment, an accident waiting to happen with a pair of rambunctious two-year-old’s prone to walk out the back door without permission.

Today we live in a modest, up-to-date Vermont home with a mountain view. Our kids play safely in our backyard, on the sidewalk, or at a neighbor’s home. Though we fight the occasional ant troop, we’ve never seen a termite or a roach. We’ve said many times that this is the house God had for us. All in all, it’s a blessed home, and we know it.

But I’d be wrong to say that our other homes weren’t blessed, too. It’s not the size of the home, the number of conveniences, or the neighbors that determine if a house is blessed. Proverbs 3:33 reveals that “the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just.” Simply put, the believer’s home is a blessed house.

The Bible reading plan that I use schedules Proverbs 3 alongside the story of Joseph. As I read about God’s blessing upon Joseph’s habitations, from Potiphar’s house to an Egyptian prison and finally Pharoah’s kingdom, I became convinced that, indeed, the very dwelling place of the just is blessed. My own home, even those less-than-ideal apartments, was blessed by the Lord God Whom my family serves. 

This kind of realization changes your perspective. All too often, I see the mess, the imperfections, the things I want changed; and then my house, my habitation, doesn’t seem blessed. But when I remind myself that God has blessed it, I can see it through different eyes. 

Look at that blessed bedroom with a pile of clothes on the floor. Two young girls quickly growing into young women dwell there. Look at that blessed kitchen that’s just a bit too small. Three growing boys are nourished there. See this backyard my husband has toiled to tame? It’s a blessed space where we welcome the neighbor children who need to see God’s light in us.

My home is blessed! Your home, dear sister, is blessed! So until we reside in our blessed eternal home, let’s purpose to see the blessing in our homes no matter the circumstances.