What is a happy home?

Friday 9-16-2016 Home in Modesto

Scripture Reading: Eze 40 - 41    Psalm 128    Rev 21

S=Scripture O=Observation A=Application P=Prayer SOAP for the soul.

S.  Ps 128:1-4 Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways. When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house, your children like olive plants all around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD. NKJV

O.  The psalmist sings of happiness. First and last, it is available to the person who “fears the Lord”. He describes happiness as enjoying the work of one’s hands. A carpenter, a brick layer, an artist, a musician…yes, even a street sweeper can look upon his labor with joy. He or she has done her best. Now we can enjoy the wife of our youth and our children sitting around our table. It is a ballad to a happy home, tucked inside the parenthesis of giving God the reverence and honor to which He is due.

A.  Is there such a thing as an ideal home? Was my home a happy home for my wife and children? Certainly it was not a perfect home, but thank God I cannot remember shouts of insults and sarcasm. I do remember expressions of love and appreciation for one another. Surely there were moments of disagreement and disappointment, but time must have erased them all. Memory must have sweetened the mixture. Our three little boys were the delight of our lives… and their mother was my treasure. I sometimes wrote her a poem on special days.  (See below)

P.  Lord Jesus, that home is only a memory now. Now I look forward to a new home in heaven. Certainly there will be challenges and achievements, but mostly there will be love and You will be honored… so I am assured that there will be true happiness. Amen.

Ralph

Love is Forever

To My Darling Frances

by Ralph W. Hiatt on December 8, 2001

Our 50^th Anniversary, celebrated by just the two of us alone while living in Argentina

Long, long ago in a far away part

I found a fair maiden who captured my heart

I brought her a bright yellow rose for her dress

Asked her for a date and she gave me a “Yes”

That date became many, then we tied the knot

We started our new life with hardly a thought

The weeks became months and months became years

We enjoyed lots of laughter and suffered some tears

Now fifty great years have slipped into the past

It doesn’t seem possible they went by so fast

Some things have been altered by the passing of time

But my love for my darling is still in its prime

Fifty years now I have loved you

And I’ll love you fifty more

Fifty Years of God’s best blessings

And ahead there’s more in store

I love you for your beauty

That has grown with passing years

I love you for your kindness

Always there to dry one’s tears.

I have loved you as a mother

To the sons you gave to me.

Now I love you as a grandma

And again God gave us three.

One of these is now in heaven

Where one day we’ll run and play.

Soon we’ll be close to the others.

We look forward to that day.

You have always been my lover,

Faithful, caring, tender, true.

I will always hold you closely,

For I truly love you, too.