How to be grateful in my home now.

I want to share with you easy and practical steps to help you to love the home you are in today!

It is very easy living in the world that we live in to compare our homes. To desire to have more. To have have something different.

While there is nothing wrong with wanting more, when we make this our primary aim and focus, we rob ourselves of the beauty God has for us here and now.

When it becomes what we think on, what we dream about. What we talk about.

Believe me, no one loves a good dream board more than me. It is perhaps because of this, that I share so passionately with you, guard your heart.

Maybe we need to go back to simple moments of gratitude for the homes we currently have.

More than anything I want us to be good stewards of the homes Father has placed us in.

More than anything I want us to learn to be content when we have much and when we have little.

Whether our homes have the perfect wall paper, or chocolate brown walls. Perfectly curated corners or not. All the latest trends, or not.

Whether we eat from plastic plates or fine China.

I want gratitude to overflow from our hearts. Sister, this is how we rise. How true peace begins to pour forth from us.

When we align our hearts and minds with what Father has for us in this season, we can experience truth, goodness and beauty in our everyday lives.

Sister, if you are in a season of renting, I want you to know this time is not wasted. Remind yourself that you are stewarding this home and you want to do it well.

My Mama has always said to me, “Yessi, care for this little space as if it was your very own. The Lord sees how we steward what He has given in every season, take good care of what He has given you…”

Our Father does not despise small beginnings.

Do not despise small beginnings, for The Lord rejoices to see the work begin…”

zechariah 4:10

So many promises in His Kingdom begin as small seeds.

From the tiniest of buds unfurling to the littlest baby in the womb

I grew up in very humble homes, simple apartments and mobile homes.

My mama has always been a very clean person.

Even though we didn’t have a lot of money she and my daddy always made sure to provide for us.

We had clean clothes, food on the table and a clean home.

I don’t ever remember my Mama complaining about our living situation.

Even now all of these years later she thinks back to the times of living with other families fondly, though it was difficult.

Having migrated from Mexico in the late 1980s with primarily the clothes on their backs, they were welcomed into a relatives garage.

He had a mattress for them and that was about it.

They had made it to the land of the brave and free. They were determined to make the best out of it.

Why it all matters:

I want to paint this picture for you, because I never dreamed I would live in a very large home, nor was it something that I was praying for.

Both my husband and I are very thankful people.

I truly believe we can take our circumstances and make the most out of them.

This is only done through repetition and came forth from a desperate prayer to God.

As young 20 year old’s with not very much to our name and a brand new baby moving to a much bigger city. Knowing no one. We didn’t know how God would meet our needs.

My husband was starting a new job and wouldn’t get paid for a couple of weeks.

Imagine our surprise when dear friends from our community came together with a money tree for us. More than enough to see us through.

The Lord has continued to meet our needs. To draw us to Himself as we have done our best to live thankful lives.

Recently a dear friend reminded me of how I used to host playdates in our apartment home. I had completely forgotten about those sweet and simple days.

I never gave way to thoughts of “they live in nicer homes than you do, how could you even think of hosting?”

Because none of that mattered to me. I saw so clearly how these precious women were not coming over to see our home, they were coming over to visit with me.

To love and grow alongside me and my little children.

These are my kind of people. You feel so loved and welcomed in their presence.

What a gift it is to remember.

The practice of gratitude.

Sister, our brains will believe what we tell them.

If we are in a constant state of saying things like, “this is not enough, I don’t have enough. This is ugly. I want a bigger house. I need to redo our home before I can invite others over. I can’t invite people into my home because it’s too small… too old…” guess what will happen?

Yep, you’ll keep your doors closed.

These homes we have. They are not just for us sister. Father has given us these homes to serve as lighthouses. Homes filled with hope.

I wrote more on this here.

This doesn’t mean everything is perfect or that everyone even gets along all the time. What it does mean is that this is our hearts desire, our hearts cry and surrender to The Holy One.

Ann Voskamp has a beautiful book, One Thousand Gifts, “A dare to live fully right where you are”

I have only read a few chapters, but what I read was so good and so helpful, it is that of living in gratitude.

Creating a journal of thanksgiving.

Here and now. In the midst of whatever your life may look like. There is always something to be thankful for.

Sister, in very difficult seasons our only praise may be “Thank you God for sending your son”.

And you need to know this is sufficient.

The challenges I overcame living in a smaller home with five kiddos, my Mama and my husband, and our dog:

When my daddy passed away in 2021, we knew we wanted my Mama to move in with us. We had a three bedroom home, one single bed for my Mama, and this was enough for her.

It was the home we had purchased and had loved so very much. To tell you the truth, I never imagined we would move.

Even as The Lord continued to grow our family. I really believed we would stay there until the day we died.

I can still remember a dear friends husband telling us shortly after we bought our first home that it was a nice “starter” home.

I inclined my ear to hear what my husband would say, he was polite, but let our friend know that wasn’t the way we viewed our home and unless The Lord had other plans we would live there pretty much forever.

There is just something so beautiful about smaller homes.

Sister, I’m not talking about it being easier to clean, though that’s something too.

It is often easier to stay connected in smaller spaces.

To be honest, when Father began to show us He had another home for our growing family in 2022 I couldn’t believe it and I really struggled with the whole idea of moving and to a bigger place.

I had gotten so good at decluttering, re organizing.

Minimizing our belongings. Even with all of us in our first home I never really felt “there isn’t enough space”.

Anytime I would begin to battle these types of thoughts I would say to myself, “time to start decluttering.

& “Lord let me give thanks for what you have given.”

I truly believe the whole of this post can be summed up in these words, “Teach us to be a grateful people.”

Sister, when we are grateful we leave room for God to do whatever He wants to do in our lives. It doesn’t mean we don’t get to purchase a new home, or even update our current one! Of course we can, in His timing!

& If you are looking for a local realtor I know of a lovely woman of God, Nichole, who would love to help, you can find her here.

If you are looking for an incredible designer here in Central Tx, Talofa Designs, does an incredible job. Vanessa is a dear!

Remember I told you about that dream board earlier? We have creamy white walls, I love them. They are beautiful, a perfect canvas for color and an invitation to the smallest of my children to
draw” on them.

I didn’t invite her. The walls did.

One day, I will have beautiful wall paper through out our home, just like my beloved Dana, who is now with Father in Heaven, envisioned alongside me.

When we moved into our new home in 2023 we had to paint most of the first floor.

What was on the walls can only be described as dust? The previous owner had wall paper all through out the home, can you even imagine?

Knowing me, I would have probably loved it.

Well, the wallpaper was stripped off but the person never finished the job. My husband knew we would have to paint, but I thought we needed to wipe the walls clean.

I was in for a surprise.

I had a tiny newborn, and four other children I was homeschooling, when would I find the time to do this? My husband also works a full time job.

Honest, hard working people are often difficult to find. The Reyes family did an incredible job and only took a few days to finish most of our home, as the kiddos wanted fun colors on their walls too.

Because The Lord is so kind and loves beauty He will often give us ideas of ways we can update our homes and bring more color into our spaces.

I know that as you continue to fix your eyes on Him, He will give you the desires of your heart.

He takes us by the hand and shows us how to add more life and how to saturate our walls with prayer.

Wherever you find yourself today, I pray your heart will be filled with gratitude. We serve a Mighty God sister.

I know many of you are in seasons of transition. Know that Father sees you. He cares deeply for you!

I am cheering you on.

Praying you will have the courage to dig deep wells of love within the walls of your homes and invite others in the process.

Thankful for you!

If this blog post has blessed you, will you let me know in the comments. Your comments are such a gift to me.

Thank you for taking the time to share with your people and for all of your love and encouragement.

Dig deeper: Psalms 37:4