Finding Joy in the Rooms of a Mother’s HeartSample

The Family Room

As the mother of the unique brood that you have been given, you are the keeper of the keys of your family. To a large degree, you hold the exclusive key to the happiness that your family will experience, the contentment that is shared, and the bonding that is cultivated. A mother is the one person who can decide to honor the miracle that is named family. She knows that happiness happens in the family room of her heart.

Children should experience their first truly wonderful memories in the family home. When a child thinks of home, he or she should think of safety, faith, stability, and fun. The family room is a place of laughter and raucous games; it is marked by creativity, innovation, and traditions. The family room just may be the very best place of a mother’s heart because this is where unity is perfected and where identity is established. We are a family because of the happenings in the family room.

One of the greatest and longest-lasting gifts that you can give to your children is the gift of family traditions. Traditions are likely to become the glue that ties the children’s hearts together as they grow into adults. Developing and maintaining traditions is chiefly the job of the mother, who is the keeper of the keys to the family room.

Traditions are the sweetest and most long-lasting way of declaring, “We are a family!” A tradition is a family holiday without a name; it is a calendar-worthy event that claims no red-letter day on any other calendar but the one that hangs in your home. The traditions that you establish in your home today are the memories that your children will embrace tomorrow. 

Your heart is the center of your children’s solar system and you must remind yourself that their little lives revolve around you. You are their home, their song, their hope, and their source. I hope that even when the sink is filled with dishes, when the laundry basket is overflowing, and when you haven’t washed your hair in days, you will know how irreplaceable you are in the family room.

Traditions are the stories that families write together. The stories that tradition writes are found in the hearts of your children long after they are grown and gone. Keep writing your story, dear mom.