Building Your Home

This past weekend we had the privalege to be part of a mini-ladies retreat. I must admit it was a huge effort for me to get there and to be apart of it, but after being there it was a huge blessing! I am so thankful that I made all the effort to reschedule my English classes,  the boys schedule and took the train to get to the nearby city where it was held.

The theme was "Building up or Tearing down". Centered around how we as wives, moms, and daughters can build our homes for God´s glory. Not just the physical things like cleaning up the house and keeping it in order, but the spiritual side of edifying - or building up each member of your family. This hit home so hard that it was very difficult for me to resist tears. By the end of the second session, I was in tears.

If you are anything like me, you want it all done right "yesterday". I want my home organized, pretty, and running smoothly, but this doesn´t happen very often. It´s only by the grace of God that our homes run smoothly and when we are not connected to His power and strength it doesn´t happen at all. By the time we find ourselves running on empty, we finally stop and ask why. Why isn´t it running as smoothy as it did once before? We know the basics, so what is failing?  I think, these kind of evaluations are so neccesary even if you have done them before and continue to struggle, we need to keep getting back to the Power Source.

Building up our children is an area that we need continual work on. I know I do at least. The last session delt mostly with getting our house in order in our relationship to God, and our Family. The second relationship in the family that is so difficult and that is changing all the time is our relationship with our children.

Here are just a few of the points -

Mothers to your children-

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  love them  and make them know you love them (Titus 2:4)
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  Teach them (Deut. 6:6-7)
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  Correct and train them  (Hebrews 12:11)
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  Take care of them
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  Don´t anger them, Don´t take away their hope (Ephesians 6:4, Col.3:21)

There is so much to share, but this last point is key. All the other points, are ruined if there is anger. If we make excuses for our wrong behavior, how can we expect our children to behave correctly. If we are nagging and nagging without giving them hope of doing it right, they will give up. They won´t try to please us anymore, instead they will rebel. Oh, that we leave our children with the hope that the Lord Jesus has given us. That we are His children and we are made perfect in Him if we have accepted Him as Savior.

I was overwhelmed at how far we really are from the "Biblical Ideal"  I thought there is no way we can attain this level of order, but that is exactly what Satan would have us to believe. That we have failed and it is impossible to be perfect. During that last session on Saturday, it dawned on me that having discipline and order in our spiritual life is just like fitness and getting in shape physically. It doesn´t happen over night, of course. It takes training. You can give up on it and go backwards (getting fat and out of shape) or you can keep exercising what you know from the Word of God and keep on. So, I drew up a plan, made a list of things I wanted to change, and started to pray. I need to see it in action. It has to be visual or it won´t work.

Let´s keep building our home and keeping it in order not only the physical, but also the relationships within our home.

***Linking up with Making Your Home Sing Monday***