Home Education in Our Family 4

The Atmosphere of Home

When I first got married I had a mental picture of my "perfect" home (which closely resembled the one in a favourite childhood story book, My Dolly and Me).  However, this was obviously the remnant of a idealistic childhood thought.  In reality I have changed living arrangements about 15 times in the 16 years I have been married!  This has taught me a few things, the most important being this: that no matter what size, style, colour, location or arrangement of furniture we have in our four walls the MOST important is the atmosphere of the home.  This is the one factor that we can control or take with us.  I read a wee story in the Charlotte Mason Companion Guide that I will share here because it illustrates this point so well from the mouth of a child.

During World War II, when America was imprisoning Japanese families in camps, a reporter stepped up to a little Japanese-American girl waiting at a train platform. "How does it feel to be without a home?" the reporter asked.  "Oh", replied the little girl, "we have a home, we just don't have a house to put it in."

Touching... perceptive... innocent yet so wise an insight.  I am a work in progress in this and often fail to maintain the "perfect" ambiance, however I can say I have learned to be content, thankful for the small mercies, and strive to give a life-supporting atmosphere to my family.  Just as a glasshouse protects and gives optimal conditions for plants to thrive and become fruitful, so too can our home atmosphere give simulation for healthy mental, emotional, spiritual and physical growth.

Children draw inspiration from the casual life around them.  It is an anxious moment when we ponder on any of our poorer words being a daily influence on our children.  We inspire, one way or the other.  About our children hangs the thought environment they live in, just as a glasshouse plant is surrounded by humid air.  It is how the child develops those lasting ideas which become a part of their inclination toward divine things or distasteful things.

Somethings that make this atmosphere what it needs to be are:

1. A loving mum who makes the house a home.
2. God's angels' protecting wings.  Now here is a powerful thought.  "When home is ruled according to God's word, angels might be asked to stay with us, and they would not find themselves out of their element."  ~Charles Spurgeon. 
3. The freedom to express your own opinion where discussion is open; provided you are respectful in your delivery and humbly accepting of critique.  This is the platform for gentle encouragement in the development of mature Godly thinking.  Trust and confidence are nurtured when sympathy and support are manifest.
4. Hugs and loving touch.
5. Good manners and courtesy towards others; just as we would like to be treated ourselves.  This creates an atmosphere which then imparts the virtue back to us - a beautiful cyclical passing forward of love.

And so, may our homes' atmosphere foster good growth, the satisfaction of learning, more influence than the world outside, strong family ties, a place of safety for mind, body and soul.