Blessing of a Home

This is not a home altar. These items are in my study in the church.
The painting is of the lighthouse in Ludington painted by my wife.
This is to acknowledge that the true holy land is where you are
not some particular piece of geography. the egg is wooden and hand-
painted from Ukraine.  Its gift from my brother and a nod to Christian
tradition.  The paper is a "love letter" from a former church wishing me well.
The cup reminds me of the cup of blessing. The photo is of my siblings. the
Shell is a symbol of baptism and a souvenir from my kids' mission trip.
The Nativity scene is hand carved olive wood purchased from Palestinian
Christians. 

 In my last post I brought up the idea of consecrating our homes, of perhaps, even having a home altar. The home is the place where we can truly practice God's unconditional love. In our homes we are free from pretense. In our home our true nature is most revealed. In our home life is at its most raw. How blessed would it be to come before God, as a family, in our shared weakness to ask for God's strength? If you have children or grand children they will learn from you how to relate to God. If you only relate to God one day a week, then that is how they will likely relate to God. If you make your spiritual life indivisible from the rest of your life, well then our children will be all the stronger for it.

In our home we have weekly family meetings. In these meetings each person has an opportunity to bring up a topic of discussion to which every person has a an opportunity to respond to. This act of intentional communication with each other has strengthened us and has brought greater peace and harmony to our home. Wouldn't it stand to reason that if we included God in our daily lives that the blessings would multiply? Yes, most families have a prayer before meal time but what about a more intentional way of living our life together?

In our United Methodist Book of Worship there is a SERVICE FOR THE BLESSING OF A HOME on page 610. In this service, several scriptures are suggested (I will list them below). What if, at the beginning of Advent or the beginning of the calendar year we rededicate not only ourselves and our families but our homes as well, to God? The liturgy for this service will take less than ten minutes. What a great way to start the year and what a great way to get to know each other better! You could make it as simple or elaborate as you want. I could breeze in and breeze out or you could make it a party!

I would enjoy comments, suggestions and even Guinea pigs for this.

Blessings. 

Suggested lessons for the blessing of a home:

Joshua 24:14-25

1 John 4:11-21

Acts of the Apostles 2:43-47

Ephesians 3:14-21

Matthew 7:24-27

Matthew 6:25-33

John 14:1-3