Ecclesiastes 2:4-11; 1 Kings 6:38 – 7:12
List the building projects of the writer. We learn that Solomon spent 7 years building the Temple in Jerusalem and 13 years building his palace. And it was all built with slave labor. What does that say about Solomon’s priorities? What logic do you think Solomon used to justify such a large and opulent house? What logic do people use today?
Why do we aspire to “big is better” and “luxury amenities”? What did Solomon come to realize about his home improvement projects? How can you live out his “lesson learned” in relationship to your home improvement and home décor?
For Further Reflection
Steven Huff is currently building the largest single-family home in the US—a 72,000 square foot mansion in southwestern Missouri. The Master Bedroom alone is 1,200 square feet. In upscale home building, the trend is to build homes inside homes (ie master bedroom suites and guest suites). According to the US Census Bureau, the average home size in 1950 was 1100 square feet. In 2010, homes averaged 2392 square feet. Yet the size of American households has decreased from 3.37 in 1950 to less than 2.5 today. Why do you think the size of our houses has increased so much?
What affect might all the extra space have on relationships? The environment? What is “enough” space for you/your family?
Tongue on Fire 
A few years ago, my wife and I went on a tour of model homes in a new development outside of Dallas, Texas. We were with people who did this regularly as a form of entertainment. The development was higher-end homes. And the thing that struck me was that every one of the 4-5 bedrooms had it’s own bathroom. At the time, my family of four lived in a four bedroom, 1 bath home. When we had guests, the population of our home could rise to 6 or 8 people–but we still had to deal with one bathroom. Showers had to be scheduled and timed if we were all going to get out of the house on time. Looking back, it would have been nice to have 2 baths, but we learned how to cooperate together and share. The 1 bathroom forced us to consider the needs of others and live as a community. If all of us would have had our own bath, we could have lived without any thought of others. We would never have had to de-center. Maybe our home design is partly to blame for the disintegration of the family.
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Good perspective, Pastor Ray. Similarly, we have just one TV in our house and will never exceed that. I don’t want the proliferation of TVs, computers, and gadgets to make it possible for each member of my family to disperse to bedrooms unless it is actually time to sleep.
However, I do have a goal of finishing our basement so that it is a mother-in-law suite. I’d like to have a functional but small kitchen, a full bath, and a bedroom down there. We’ve invited people to stay with us a couple times, but they’ve had to make due with a spare bedroom and a shared bath, and once some friends slept in the unfinished basement for a year. Brrrr! I’d like to have a comfortable living situation available to them in the future. Also, my parents will always want to live independently, and should be able to do so for many more years. However, if that should ever change, I’d love to have them under my roof, accessible, and safe in a way that would allow them to preserve some independence. Or perhaps Gene and I will someday hand off the main house to one of our kiddos and their family and make the basement our home. In addition to the excessive size of new homes, I’d like to find a way to shift away from every new family needing/expecting a new home. Buying preexisting homes, or multiplying the use of one home can be helpful for a family’s economics and relationships.
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Yea for 1 TV! Technology keeps promising connectivity and community (social media, etc), but it actually results in retreat and isolation (video games, etc). I do really like this “post” and “reply” option on this blog though.
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In response to Amanda’s comment about new families and new homes; the new developments are also taking away the land we used to use for farming. The amount of farm land is shrinking more and more. Then you get into rezoning laws.
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