It began at the start of the year. In the women’s class at Church, the Bishop came in. (Non-LDS folks, he’s like the pastor/preacher.) Now it is a pretty brave man to take on the women of any church, but we are a nice group of ladies and we waited patiently to hear what he desired to impart to all of us. I do not know what others thought, but I totally wanted to jump out of my seat, shout “Amen!”, and do a little dance my agreement was that strong.

Never fear, I restrained myself. His idea was simple enough. In our church and temples, we strive for reverence. Ok, we are just as social as the rest of humanity and sometimes on Sunday get a bit boisterous before and after meetings as we greet one another. That’s OK. Overall, though, we try to foster a spirit of reverence while we worship.

Many of different faiths say, “home can be a heaven on earth.” I do believe this. Our homes should become our respite from the world. A place where we can relax after a long day at work or driving the kids to various activities. You get the idea, right?

I don’t know about YOUR home, but I have two boys. One is a teenager and one is almost a teenager. At the time the Bishop came in, I also had my lovely Thai “daughter” living with us as well. Two teens, a tween, a chihuahua, my husband, and myself all in a small home. It could get… noisy. Yeah, we’ll say “noisy”.

The Bishop’s idea centered around trying to help things be a little calmer at home. Let’s face it, no one is going to have a perfectly quiet home where harp music plays in the background. It just won’t happen no matter how heavenly it sounds! However, we can find ways to properly interface with our family members. With proper interactions, maybe the peace in our homes can at least stand a “fighting” chance.

Perfect example: Do I really need to holler at the top of my lungs, “DINNER!!!!!” leading to the inevitable thundering heard of elephants… uh I mean kids… racing for the dinner table? Absolutely not. I can go seek out my various family members and invite them kindly to dinner. We all have mobile phones, so I could send out a blanket text which would not only stay quiet, but also reach those outside the home.

It’s all about options and what we choose to do with them.  Changing the actions in our lives to try to create a more peaceful environment. Is my family successful at having a quieter home, as my Bishop requested? Not always.  I can say that, after nine and a half months of attempting to find ways other than yelling for one another, I am happier.  I enjoy the greater sense of peace.

I think my Bishop was brilliant in coming up with this idea. Truly inspired. I think it’s crazy I didn’t think about doing something like this before because I’ve ALWAYS hated the yelling.  It just hurts my ears and as someone that suffers from migraines, it’s just hard on me.

I found this idea for taking the month of October to “Making Your Home a Haven”.  I read through the ideas, and thought it would go hand in hand with the several efforts going on with my family for 2010. I came late, but I plan to do it anyway. I want to give it the full time allotted for the experience so I plan to just lag behind.  Since I’m altering it already, I’m also changing the day of the week to post on from Sunday to Monday.  Feel free to join in with me if you like!

Week 1: October 18 – Go buy an extra large candle and light a candle everyday in your home. Each time the candle catches your eye, say a prayer for peace in your home.
I have my large candle ready to go.  I’ll report back on Monday of next week with how this affected me throughout the week and to give the challenge for week 2 so you can know what I’m working towards!

–Lady O