It’s not houses, cars, manicured lawns or air conditioning that makes a home. “Home” is intangible but it is one of the greatest feelings we can ever have.

Home and Family is What I Wish for You

I used to travel about 100,000 miles a year in the air. Of course that meant lots of time away from my home and family. My frequent flyer miles account was always bursting at the seams. People would hear about the many places around the world I traveled for business and divine the obvious about the state of my frequent flyer miles account. Often, with such and observation, they would follow-up. “With all of those miles, where do you go on vacation?” I would always answer with a smile and one word. “Home.”

I wanted children who didn’t have home and family to get home and family. Often, fixing those kinds of problems and helping others to do the same takes money; and lots of it.

To me, travel took me toward financial success but away from my family. I believe I was chasing money for the right purposes and that’s the reason I didn’t walk away from getting on airplanes. I wanted children who didn’t have home and family to get home and family. Often, fixing those kinds of problems and helping others to do the same takes money; and lots of it.

Home feels like home because of family, not because of a building. Home and family.

One of my favorite homes was a small apartment, where Amy and I started our lives together and where we brought out first son home for the first time. Of course we were thrilled when we signed papers and moved into the first house that was really “ours.” (Yeah… Lol. We owned a lot of mortgage and a little bit of house.) Our home and family evolved a lot over the years. With the fluctuations in business and economy, there were even setbacks in the houses that we called home. Those financial setbacks and moves to settings of less prestige never made our house seem less like home. Home feels like home because of family, not because of a building. Home and family.

I must say that I have never seen more riches than I saw in Guatemalan poorness where the families I visited had little more than home and family.

Of course difficulties in families can make hour homes feel less like home. We have seen our share of challenges in that area. But that’s a subject I write about often; a subject for another day. Today I want to talk about what makes me rich. And I would be rich if I went bankrupt tomorrow. That’s what rushed through my mind as I sat in several small Guatemalan homes a couple of weeks ago. It’s not houses, cars, manicured lawns or air conditioning that makes a home. “Home” is intangible but it is one of the greatest feelings we can ever have. It is a manifestation of the greatest wealth we could ever attain. In Guatemala I saw several American and Guatemalan families who were rich beyond financial success and I compared them in my mind to people who are so poor that they possess only lucre. I saw children who were rich because they had been moved out of an orphanage and into a family. I saw parents who were rich because they are saving up people. And I saw siblings who are rich with experience that their sheltered peers will never get. I must say that I have never seen more riches than I saw in Guatemalan poorness, where the families I visited had little more than home and family.

It’s having a place in your heart and mind where you are loved like nowhere else on earth. That, to me, is what home and family are all about.

Whether you have money or not is inconsequential for building such a family. Still, it’s the kind of home and family that’s worth anything we can give up to attain. It’s a home and family that is worth fighting for, but more importantly, and often more difficultly, it’s a home and family worth loving for. After all, that’s the hard part… The difficulty isn’t fighting for something. It’s loving when loving is hard. It’s teaching to love when learning comes slow. And it’s having a place in your heart and mind where you are loved like nowhere else on earth. That, to me, is what home and family are all about.

That is the home and family I wish for the friends I have who read these articles. I want you to have a home and family that makes you feel like the richest person on earth whether you live in a mansion, a Guatemalan cinderblock house, or a wooden Russian cottage in the dead of a Siberian winter. I want you to give up whatever it takes to find those riches and to share them with others by giving children your own home and family, so that they can be rich just like you.

Often, readers receive as much help from other readers in the comments section as they do from the blog article, itself. Please be generous with your thoughts and experiences in the comments section. There are lots of people who need what you have to share. This is your chance to help them. Your comments matter.

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