The Very Heart Of Your House

"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." 

Psalm 128:1-4 NKJV

This passage from Psalm 128 is one I could dine on over and over and over.  Each word, each phrase, each truth grabs my heart. I want it to steep deep into my soul, understanding each morsel.  I want to know the mission and blessing of these truths when lived out in daily life.

Clutching at my core is the promise and calling of a God-honoring marriage and home:  "Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house..."  A fruitful vine in the very heart of my house.

Knowing that abiding in Him daily is how He brings forth abundant and nutritious fruit through my life, marriage and motherhood have caused my roots of faith and courage to go deeper than I knew was possible.  Delighting in His word and planting myself by streams of living water, I am desperate for His mercy and grace such that I may be the fruitful vine of refreshment for my family.   "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners...But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.  He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper."  Psalm 1:1-3 

Women are the very heart of the home.  We are the continually-moving muscle that pumps oxygen and nutrients throughout our homes. Circulating love and vitality, we are called to be the pulse.  Though much of the flexing of our unique muscle is hidden, its work is central and essential. 

Overwhelmed at times by the gift and calling, the rhythmic beating becomes a pounding lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub.

Messed-up moments are met with His matchless mercy.   

Daily do-overs are responded to by His lavish grace.

Mercy and grace that pour out promising I will never fail to bear fruit as I trust in the Lord, put my confidence in Him and plant myself by His streams of living water.

“But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in Him.
He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8

The fruitful vine in the very heart of the house.

These towering responsibilities can tempt me muddle the simplistic beauty of His calling. 

But He quiets my heart with His love and invites me to dine, to abide, to know, to pulse, to bear fruit. By His Spirit and for His glory.

"But the word is very near you,

in your mouth and in your heart,

that you may do it."

Deuteronomy 30:14

“They shall feed along the roads,
And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.
They shall neither hunger nor thirst,
Neither heat nor sun shall strike them;
For He who has mercy on them will lead them,
Even by the springs of water He will guide them."

Isaiah 49:10