Good morning, friends. It looks like today will be filled with sunshine, with perhaps a rain shower or two. Last night I fell asleep while listening to rain tapping against our roof, and it was so peaceful.

I’m a deep thinker, and earlier in the week I was thinking, like I often do. I was overwhelmed with gratitude while taking a look around our home and property. It nearly took my breath away.

I wasn’t impressed by the way things looked, but rather, the way they felt.

In an instant, I was transported back to my preteen years. I was a very sensitive child with a deep love for God. Everything I did, I did for God. Literally everything.

I also attended a local public school. I remember feeling so strange and left out…but at the same time, happy to be left out. The things I saw and experienced while with my classmates had really begun to take a toll on me.

I longed to be brought home to be schooled, or at least to have been put in a different learning environment. That didn’t happen.

But this week, it dawned on me how I’ve been given everything I ever wanted as a young girl. I now have my own little retreat away from the rest of the world where I am free to be myself…to read, to study, to write. I’m now free to grow into the person I was created to be.

It literally brought tears to my eyes. It’s funny, because I’ve been a stay-at-home-mom for two and a half decades, and I just thought about how the desires of my preteen heart have been met so perfectly in the life I live now.

My home isn’t perfect, but to me, it is peaceful. Really, it doesn’t matter at all what our homes look like, does it? It’s just so nice to be in a place where life feels good and hopeful.

I hope you feel goodness and hope wherever you may be, too.

Thank you so much for stopping by today, friends. If you’d like to take a look at my books, please click here.

Oh, and click here for a free Affirmations for Homemakers chart!