"Son, your mother is really a remarkable woman."The Family in America had a great article by Bryce Christensen. He wrote that the number of homeless people on our streets does not begin to reveal the scope of homelessness in America.
"For since when did the word home signify merely physical shelter, or homelessness merely the lack of shelter? The desperate people sleeping beneath sheets of cardboard above heating grates, and probing for food in dumpsters deserve sympathetic attention. But those who lack housing are not the only people who lack homes.
"For as long as people have used the word, home has signified not only shelter, but also emotional commitment, security, and belonging. Home has connoted not just a necessary roof and warm radiator, but a place sanctified by the abiding ties of wedlock, parenthood, and family obligation; a place demanding sacrifice and devotion, but promising loving care and warm acceptance.
"Their lives anchored in some place fortified by the ties of marriage and family, the great majority of Americans have—until fairly recently—been able to refer to some special place as home, and to do so with the full and rich meaning of that word. In recent decades a devastating number of Americans cannot claim that secure base of family ties that previous generations recognized as the essence of a home."
1922 Magazine CoverHarold B. Lee said, "The most important work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own home." You don't need to jump over the moon to be remarkable.
Our goal has always been to have our home be a safe haven, no matter what is happening in the world around us. Mostly we achieve it, I think.
ReplyDeleteOma, I wish I could hug you.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of a TV news show I watched last week on Teens living on the Streets. It was so sad. One young girl lived on the streets of the same town her mother lived in. The mother and her boyfriend had lost their home and were living in a camper. There was no room in the camper for the teenage daughter so she was left to fend for herself. She had no safe haven in more ways than one with her own mother making the boyfriend the priority!
ReplyDeleteThe stories went on to different teens living on the streets. Most often they left home, some as young as 12, to escape neglect and abuse at home.