Home Is Where You Are Welcome: All Clear For Landing

Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

(Proverbs 21:9)

What would drive a man to the corner of the roof?

Have you ever regretted a hurried, irritable, or distracted “good-bye” or “welcome home?”   

Have you ever greeted your husband with complaints before a kiss, a garbage bag before a hug, or sarcasm before “sweet nothings,” forgetting your best friend just joined you on the front lines, not stepped in as your enemy?

I now see what would drive a man to a roof corner. 

I recall a typical weekday morning several years ago. I was pregnant with our 3^rd child, pregnant and sporting flannel PJs.

Our 5 year old and 20 month old were darting around the house and my husband was showered, shaved, packed and ready to fly out. He headed for the door with one on his leg and one in the air and proceeded to tell the small people:  

“momma’s gonna build a fort.”

I had not even had a cup of coffee!

Needless to say, the flannel “sasquatch” didn’t give a snuggly hug good-bye to her “travelin’ man.” 

“All clear for landing” is a cherished statement in the life of wife of a “travelin’ man.”   So why would we sabotage the coveted “clear landing” with a “dark, short, bumpy, cluttered or curvy runway?”

The enemy of our soul wants to devour our families thus leading us to self-sabotage.  He is about killing potential; therefore, he capitalizes on separating spouses, destroying children, distracting families with busyness or paralyzing people into believing they are purposeless.

BUT we can and we will fight back with God’s Word, The Sword of the Spirit. 

What makes a runway “all clear for landing?”

What makes a “home a place where you are welcome?”

 Scripture reveals answers.

1 Corinthians 13:3-7 MSG (Bold print)

1) Visible runway: Love always looks for the best and takes pleasure in the flowering of truth.

2) Long Runway:  Love puts up with anything, never gives up, trusts God always, never looks back and keeps going to the end.

3) Level runway:  Love doesn’t fly off the handle, force itself on others or strut.

4) Clear runway:  Love doesn’t revel when others grovel and doesn’t have a swelled head.  

5) Straight runway:  Love isn’t always “me first,” cares more for others than for self, doesn’t want what it doesn’t have and doesn’t keep score of the sins of others.

Where were you and what were you doing on September 11, 2001?  

I was at home with my 1 year old when I saw the second plane fly into the Twin Towers.  Shock and heartbreak drove a nation to its knees.

My husband was not traveling that day but many were.  Four planes never heard “all clear for landing” and countless loved ones never said “welcome home” that tragic day. 

“Closer To Love” by Mat Kearney states a profound truth:

“I guess we’re all one phone call from our knees…”

BUT God’s WORD is TRUTH and HE says, “Beauty comes from ashes.”

One of my daughter’s best friends lost her father in the Pentagon. We have seen the pain up close and personally, but we have also seen the beauty rising up out of what the enemy meant to destroy. God is still in the business of bringing HIS glorious good from ashes!

Coming from someone who lost her own father out of the blue at 21 years of age, I can tell you first hand that those who’ve lost loved ones unexpectedly would say:

Live 1 Corinthians 13 ALL THE TIME!  

Hug tightly, kiss long, forgive quickly, laugh a lot, let your heart break with the broken hearted and celebrate with those rejoicing.  

Don’t look back, unless the memory was sweet or a God-glorifying lesson was learned.  Live fully in the present, while dreaming enormous God dreams for the future. 

Keep praying “all clear for landing” and never take  “welcome home” for granted. 

Home truly is where you are welcome!

GoGod

Katie Wilson, psalm8110.com