What to Do When You Dread Going Home

Home is supposed to be a place of rest, but for some it feels like a second shift. Discover how a two-minute practice on the drive home can change what happens when you walk in.Some people leave work and feel something tighten in their chest at the thought of pulling into the driveway. Maybe a child is struggling and every evening turns into a battle. Maybe things with a spouse are strained, and the air in the house goes tense the second they walk in. Home is supposed to be the place you finally rest. Some nights it feels like clocking in for a second shift.Part of the trouble is that the day does not stay at work. Whatever wound you up rides home with you and walks in the door on your face and in your voice, before you have said a word. You may not even notice it, but the people waiting for you feel it right away. In this episode, Bart tells his own version. After years in law enforcement, he would pull into the driveway still running at the same high alert the shift demanded, and walk into a house that had been peaceful until he opened the door. His wife, Katharine, deserved better than what he was bringing home.Proverbs 24:3-4 says, "A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense. Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables." Notice the word built. A home comes together slowly, by wisdom and good sense, which is another way of saying it is shaped by the small choices nobody sees. The tone you bring through the door on a Tuesday night is one of those choices, and the rooms of a home fill over years with the warmth those choices create.Here is the part that is easy to miss. You are one of the things that decides what home feels like. You cannot control what kind of day the people inside have had. You can control which version of you walks through the door. That is where Bart's one practice comes in, a small thing he started doing on the drive home that left most of the day out on the road before he ever pulled in.This episode is an invitation to stop treating home as something that happens to you when you arrive, and to see the drive home as the place you get ready to build it.BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER:Why the stress of your day follows you through the front door whether you mean it to or notWhat Proverbs 24:3-4 reveals about the slow, invisible work of building a homeA two-minute practice for the drive home that changes who walks in the doorYou cannot control what is waiting on the other side of the door. You can decide who walks in.Share This Episode:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/290Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemailWant to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast.https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/Rate and Reviewhttps://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/Connect with BartFacebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylivesWebsite: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.comFeeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus here: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/subscribe.