I Want to be the House With All of the Shoes by the Door

I want to be the house with all of the shoes by the door.... & I don't just mean because I have a shoe obsession.

I remember even as a small child, we had a “the more the merrier” policy. The door was always open at my parents house. It was the house for family gatherings, for pool parties, for post-football game sleepovers, where my mom would wake everyone up on Saturday mornings with the smell of breakfast. I remember that when you walked in the door most days, it was hard to get to the door through all of the shoes in the way and the house was rarely quiet. 

As I have grown older and now have my own house, I realize how much I also want to be that house; the one that you have to kick through too many pairs of shoes to count to get inside. To some extent, it already is. Our friends know that they can stop in whenever, and they do. The house may be a mess sometimes, but we still have an open door policy.

I know some people don’t like for their friends or family to show up uninvited. They would rather not stress about getting things ready for large groups of people to come to their home. Some think that walking in without knocking is rude. But for me, it'll always be a “the more the merrier policy” for our home. 

I pray that one day our house will be the house where our children and all of their friends know that they can come without ever asking. Where there is always a pantry full of snacks and extra servings for unexpected guests at dinner. Where we have extra pillows and blankets and lots of laughter. Where friends can come when things get tough or if they just need a break. Where they can walk in the door & feel at home. Where there may be mud on the floor, but there are also teenagers making memories. Where a spilled drink or fingerprints on the windows are no big deal and the backyard is a constant backyard football game.

I hope that someday our house is the one where all of our friends and our kids' friends want to come… you know, the kind where to get in, you have to kick all of the shoes out of the way.