I love the Little House books. As a kid, I  always wanted to be Laura, getting to have adventures and learning practical skills.

But lately I have been thinking about Ma. She is more of a background character than Pa and Laura in the books. But she is definitely the one I can relate to the most these days as my husband continues to have careers that are a little too exciting for me, and now my teenagers are starting to have their own adventures.

My job, like Ma’s, is to take each new adventure and figure out how to make a home out of it, with as much stability as possible.

Ma’s china shepherdess figurine always played a role whenever the Ingalls family moved. As soon as there was a mantle or Pa had installed the shelf he made for it, Ma put her most fragile and prized possession in its new place. It was the symbol that now wherever they were living was officially home.

This earth is not our permanent home, but how can we make it a loving, stable place for those around us while we are here?

Jeremiah 12:5 NIV
“If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?