Ten Ways to Give Life to Your Home

Hello friends!  Its been a busy day here at our home; hubby is working from home and I am busy as well, cleaning closets, laundry and the like.  Sometimes it takes more than a little motivation for me to do household chores.  Gasp!  You too?  Because of that, I have a number of homemaking books that I'm reading that I will share with you over the next few weeks, and here's one that I am loving!  31 Days to Clean:  Having a Martha House the Mary Way was one that I was flipping through today (or scrolling through, I guess that would be, on my Ipod Kindle app)  It is a Kindle ebook and you can find it here at Amazon. I have only just started it, but find it to be very encouraging.  It is divided into 31 days/chapters, each with a devotional of sorts to help us ladies develop vision and meaning as to the WHY to keep a home, not just the HOW.  This is great for someone like me, who is not always the most organized!  When I know why I am doing something, it makes it so much more doable!  I'll leave you with what I read today, in hopes that it encourages you in your endeavor to be a life-giving woman to those in your home, whether married or single!

1) Retrain our tongues to give words that encourage, comfort and edify others.

2) Offer life-giving and grace-filled words to husbands and children.

3) Make our homes a place of grace where mistakes and sins are not met with anger but with love and hope.

4) Decorate our homes to make home a place of beauty.  Beauty raises life above mere existence.

5) Develop necessary cleaning skills and habits; clutter causes stress.

6) Face our anger, anxiety, fear and depression.  Our homes reflect our mental/spiritual/emotional health.  Ask the Lord to replace these emotions with faith and hope.

7) Plan regular times away from home to rejuvenate and gain perspective.

8) Persevere in planning fun activities for family on weekends or ordinary weekdays.

9) Play praise or worship music to lift everyone's spirits. (Even King Saul in the Bible, when the Holy Spirit had left him, was refreshed and calmed by David's worship.)

10) Ask the Lord:  What areas of my home are causing stress or bringing spiritual/emotional/mental 'deadness'?  What can I do to bring life to those places instead to make them a place of refuge?

"And if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your gloom will become like midday.  And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail." Isaiah 58: 10-11 

[The above passage got my attention because this is my 'life chapter'!]

Mary challenge:  Ask your family what makes them feel the most loved when it comes to caring for your home--ask them to be specific so that you can begin (or continue) to give life to your domain.

Martha challenge:  Kitchen:  Dust tops of refrigerator, cabinets, and shelves.  Clean and shine the outsides of drawers and cabinets.

[Each devotional is followed by a 'Mary' and a 'Martha' challenge]

I hope this gives you a boost today, whatever type of homemaking you might be tackling!

Go in the Grace of our Great King,

Ruth