Our Habitat: By Mathew Whittle

Picture caption:

Tom Saunders and fiancé Caroline Reid hold his new keys after he closed on his home in November. At his home dedication, one thing that Tom said stood out to him about his new home was how much he loved his floors.

Here we are, about to start a new year, and I bet you can’t guess what I want to talk about.

That’s right, thankfulness!

Call this a Thanksgiving throwback column, but there’s something that’s been on my mind for the last month or so that I wanted to share.

Earlier this fall I asked new Habitat homeowner Thomas Saunders if he wouldn’t mind speaking at a Thanksgiving Eve Service at Stoney Creek Church. Unfortunately, he had a prior engagement and couldn’t make it. But, as luck would have it, we had just finished a short video shot primarily at his home dedication ceremony.

In that video he said four words that have resonated with me ever since – four words that I think make a pretty good mantra as we head into a new year. “I love my floors,” he said. He said more, of course, about how excited he was for his new home. But it was those four words that stuck with me because of their simplicity.

“I love my floors.”

How often do we not even notice our floors? How often do we walk on top of them and not even look down and really see what’s below us? How often do we take something so important for granted?

This new year I want to focus on loving my floors. I want to focus on loving those simple (yet important) things in life – those things that help create our foundation.