There may be no more powerful tool to use in creating a welcoming home environment than aroma. Think about it. We can walk into a beautifully decorated room filled with amazing decor, but if it smells like a skunk just ran through, we're not likely to want to remain there. Conversely, a kitchen might be in total disarray, but the smell of fresh bread baking in the oven calls us to linger there in eager anticipation of the reward. By addressing the sense of smell, we can create a home that beckons people inside and encourages them to remain. We may evoke fond memories of childhood experiences, calm the spirit, or remind others of a coming spring season even in the midst of the harshest of winters.
In an article by Rachel Herz, assistant professor of psychology at Brown University, we find an explanation of how smell affects our emotions:
"We know that the neurological substrates of olfaction are especially
geared for associative learning and emotional processing. The olfactory
bulbs are part of the limbic system and directly connect with limbic
structures that process emotion (the amygdala) and associative learning
(the hippocampus). No other sensory system has this type of intimate
link with the neural areas of emotion and associative learning,
therefore there is a strong neurological basis for why odors trigger
emotional connections."
As complicated as that may sound, the simple truth is that smells have the ability to trigger feelings. By providing pleasant aromas in our home, we can make others feel welcomed, safe, relaxed, joyful, or romantic.
Many years ago an elderly friend shared a secret with me (back when I was learning how to build a home environment and become an accomplished homemaker). She said that when time neared for her husband to arrive home from work, if she had not already begun making supper she would quickly peel an onion and a potato and put them into a pot of boiling water. The aroma that resulted would fill the kitchen and her husband would enter the home feeling that something good to eat awaited him. He even often remarked on that aroma as a gentle reminder to him that he was home. (What a wise woman she was.) My daughter-in-love (known to some as a daughter-in-law... but our love for her far outweighs our legal obligations to her) loves to bake homemade bread. When new loaves are in the making, her entire house is permeated with that intoxicating aroma and everyone inside is suddenly in a good mood. Their eager anticipation of a wonderful, warm slice of heaven slathered with a bit of butter makes any negativity fly out the window. My husband has more than once remarked to me that opening the back door of the house to be greeted with the aroma of a homemade meal seems to wipe away any of the aggravations he might have had at work that day. (Of course, I also seek to meet his other senses in positive fashion to create a home environment that beckons and gives the desire to him to hurry home at the end of a long day.) A restless, fussy child can often be soothed by a warm bath and some lavender scented body soap. In fact, that was how I prepared my babies for bedtime each and every night. (Looking at the scented products marketed for baby care in the store will quickly reveal the value of lavender.)
So, the point here is simple... creating pleasant aromas in our home will ensure that the family and guests entering into it will find a comfortable environment that evokes positive emotions and sets the mood for what is to follow. Doing this is not difficult or expensive. Stores are filled with candles, room sprays, plug-in aromatic dispensers, and other commercial means by which to create aromas. Frozen bread loaves are readily available at the grocery store. Setting our clocks to remind us to have supper simmering on the stove when our family arrives home for the evening is a reminder to us of the tremendous power we have been given to make the world within the walls of our house a special place, and one they look forward to entering.
Throughout the remainder of the evening we can introduce a variety of pleasant smells to our family by fixing a pot of mulled cider, popping some popcorn, drawing a warm bath and setting out a bar of lavender scented soap, even slipping into our nightgown after applying some scented hand and body lotion. The possibilities are limitless.
In the Bible, Mary knew the value of aroma:
"Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." (John 12:3)
Mary
then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the
feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was
filled with the fragrance of the perfume. - See more at:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Smells#sthash.IAMnK4ec.dpuf
Mary
then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the
feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was
filled with the fragrance of the perfume. - See more at:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Smells#sthash.IAMnK4ec.dpuf
I'll bet even now you are remembering an aroma that evokes a positive emotion in you. Your amygdala and hippocampus are hard at work... and you didn't even know it. Surely our God has created a miracle in our bodies. Using the power of the sense of smell will allow us to create a positive home environment and help us effectively minister to those people whom we love so dearly. What does love smell like to you?
"But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph [as trophies of Christ's victory] and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere, for we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which exhales] unto God, [discernible alike] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing"
(II Corinthians 2:14-15)
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