Sign up for our free newsletter:

Photodisc

Does your family room need a facelift? Too much clutter in your home office? Your front yard needs landscaping? Don't fret; just turn on your television. Chances are there's a how-to show for you. Hit series like The Learning Channel's Trading Spaces and ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition are chockfull of design ideas. And if that's not enough, switch over to HGTV (Home and Garden Television)—an entire cable network devoted to home-improvement programming. Those who don't watch TV can get their inspiration from the dozens of home magazines at their local bookstore, and then shuffle over to Home Depot for classes on refinishing cabinets or installing drywall.

In case you haven't noticed, a home-makeover craze has been sweeping the nation. Like never before, home is definitely where the heart is.

What's behind the trend? Some expert observers believe our yearning to renovate, decorate, and organize has spiritual roots.

Building a sanctuary
Sharon Hanby-Robie, an interior designer in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and author of My Name Isn't Martha, But I Can Decorate My Home, says the terrorist attacks of 9/11 hastened a trend that was already on its way. "We had been such a transient society in the '70s and '80s that we burned ourselves out," she explains. "People realized they wanted to have a sense of community and that it was not going to happen if you move every two to three years. September 11, 2001, expedited that whole process of putting down roots, and that includes creating a personal sanctuary."

Hanby-Robie first garnered national attention in the late 1990s with her regular home segments on NBC's Later Today. "It was totally God," she recalls. "[Later Today] gave me credibility in the secular world." Now the resident home décor expert for QVC, Hanby-Robie has also hosted Ask DIY on the DIY (Do It Yourself) network and appeared on HGTV's Mission Organization and Interiors by Design.

Last year, after the release of her book Beautiful Places, Spiritual Spaces (Moody, $12.99), which includes Scripture passages and devotional meditations, Hanby-Robie didn't know how the secular media would respond. But because of her solid reputation as a designer, many outside the Christian community have embraced the book.

"God has impressed on my heart the importance of the home," she says. "It is the center of our lives. It's the only environment over which we have some control." In a world that often seems out of control, our homes can be safe havens.

Rearranging priorities
Peggy Jones, an Atlanta-based interior decorator for 25 years, echoes Hanby-Robie's theory about 9/11. She says the terrorist attacks helped us see what's truly important and worthy of our time and effort. "After 9/11, relationships became far more important than a job, portfolio, or the daily grind. Home and family became a priority. People stayed home more because that's where they wanted to be. And people who weren't home longed to be there."

That longing for home motivates people to make their living spaces the best they can be, and Jones is right there to help them do it. One of her most fulfilling recent projects was a dining room makeover for Karin Thomas, a woman from her church. This makeover was unique: while Thomas and 40 other women met in the family room for ladies' night out, Jones and her helpers moved antiques into the dining room, arranged accessories, displayed Thomas's grandmother's dishes, and hung curtains. In an hour and a half, Jones transformed the room from bare and boring to beautiful and beguiling. When Thomas saw it, she squealed with delight, and the other women were amazed.

"I love to see the joy on my clients' faces," Jones says. "Hearing them say, 'I just love it!' is my favorite part."

The soulful home
Marlee LeDai, the Sisters, Oregon-based author of Living Spaces: Bringing Style and Spirit to Your Home (Revell, $14.99), says, "Home is where the people you love love to come back to." And making a home like that means keeping your family's needs in mind.

LeDai, formerly an editor for Virtue magazine, encourages her readers to focus on the "soul" of their homes. She told the Gannett News Service, "Taking a soulful approach involves seeing your home exactly as it is and not feeling you need to remodel it and make the bathroom shiny brand new or enlarge your home to include that extra family room or bedroom. Instead, you see all the flaws in your home as meaningful."

No home is perfect, and LeDai reminds a makeover-obsessed culture that we'll never be completely satisfied this side of heaven. She suggests we look at the flaws in our homes—and ourselves—as opportunities to be thankful for the blessings that we do have.

"Instead of buying a new vase because the one you have has a crack in it, consider what the old vase means to you. Where did it come from? Did your child knock it over while playing? If you keep it, will it always remind you of your children growing up? You may choose to treasure it for what it is, with the flaw."

Whether you already live in your dream house or dream of a house of your own, families need a place where they can be themselves, together. A place that's warm, inviting, comfortable, and safe.

Not everyone can afford the services of an interior decorator, nor can everyone knock down a wall to expand their living space—as seen on hgtv. But everyone can create a home where people—and God—feel welcome.

"It's no longer about keeping up with Joneses or competing with somebody's trends," says Sharon Hanby-Robie. "It's about what's best for your family."

She says people should enjoy the process of improving their homes, but not to the point that it becomes an idol. "We can become so consumed with our homes being perfectly beautiful that we take all the love, freedom, and pleasure out of them," she says. "And the last thing I want is a home so beautiful that people are afraid to live in it."

LeAnne Benfield is a writer from Suwanee, Georgia.

	What did you think of this story?
	Please to give us your feedback.

Read more from 'Today's Culture'

Home  |  People of Faith  |  Stories of Hope  |  Today's Culture
Build Your Faith  |  Laughing Matters  |  Archives  |  Contact Us

				Try an Issue of Today's Christian Free! Name Street Address City/State/Zip E-mail Address No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for International orders. If you decide you want to keep Today's Christian coming, honor your invoice for just $17.95 and receive five more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless. Give Today's Christian as a gift Buy 1 gift subscription, get 1 FREE!

FREE Newsletter Subscribe to the Today's Christian Newsletter    RSS Feed   RSS Help