As we seek to make our home a sanctuary for God, we must fill it with things that God loves. Yesterday we talked about strength. God also loves beauty in His sanctuary (Psalm 96:6). God wants you to fill your home with beauty too.
We love to decorate our home to make it look more beautiful, don't we? Beautiful music, pictures, plants and greenery, and flowers add loveliness to the home--whether it is a spacious home or a very humble home.
But beauty is even more than things. Beauty is order. There is no beauty in a home that is filled with junk and clutter. There is no beauty in a home that is not ordered and running smoothly. Order and simplicity will not only fill your home, but your soul with beauty.
Beauty is peace. That sure doesn't mean that you live a quiet home where there is no noise or hubbub of activity. If you have children, there will be noise, and even mess (but you don't leave things in a mess). Don't forget this fact--your peace is not in quietness; your peace is in God. Look to Him in the midst of everything happening around you.
Beauty is the joy of big and little children all around us. They are the gladness of our home.
Beauty is the aroma of food cooking and a delightfully set table that woos each family member. Always seek to make your table beautiful-a tablecloth (use a plastic cover over it if you have little ones and don't have time for extra laundry), and flowers (even a bouquet of weeds your children have gathered) or perhaps candles.
Beauty is love, joy, laughter, and especially sweet and encouraging words to your husband and children.
Seek to add a fresh touch of beauty to your home each day, both practically and spiritually.
Be blessed,
Nancy Campbell
Painting: The Breakfast Table by Sir George Clausen (1852 - 1944).
What a privilege we have as mothers to create a home that is a sanctuary for God. God loves to dwell in our homes and walk in the midst of everything we are doing (Leviticus 26:11-12 and 2 Corinthians 16-18).
Do you like fasting? I have to confess that I don't enjoy it. I love eating my three meals every day to nourish my physical body. And yet, isn't it incredible that many believers enjoy fasting from food for their inner man? Paul speaks in 2 Corinthians 4:16 about the "inward man" being "renewed day by day."
What is your plan as you begin homeschooling your children each day? Are you facing the huge challenge of completing all the curriculums you purchased for each child? Your goal is to make sure you get through them all?
Yes, you rock mother. You are amazing.
God gives a description of mothers in Psalm 113:9. In fact, it is His design and plan for mothers. Do you know the description? He calls them JOYFUL mothers!
It is a training ground for eternity. It is where we learn to overcome and destroy the works of the devil. The rewards in Heaven are for the overcomers.
The humanistic worldview in our society makes mothers feel insignificant. They are told they should do something worthwhile with their lives. This is opposite to God’s plan. God designed women for the home--to raise His children in the home (yes, they are ultimately God’s children), to influence their children for God and His truth, and to make their home a sanctuary that is strong and secure against the storms of this life.
Hospitality should be part of our lives all through the year but Christmas is such a lovely time for special functions.
I am meditating on the awesomeness of Christ coming into this world. Bible commentators agree that Jesus was not born at this Christmas time when the world remembers His birth. He would most probably have been born about the month of September during the Feast of Tabernacles. However, this is most probably that time that He was divinely conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost. Incredible. God coming to the earth as a "seed" from the Father.
What are you filled with this Christmas? Many folks have cars filled with gifts, homes filled with decorations, tables filled with food, and stockings filled with things we will never use. We are filled to over the top. However, when we read about the birth of Jesus, we find that instead of being filled with the things of the world, they were filled with the Holy Ghost!
Oh, come and see what God has done! How did He come? How did God choose to send His Son? We immediately think of how He came as a little helpless baby. But first He came into a womb, the womb of a young virgin. Luke 1:31 states: “And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy WOMB, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.” Who could ever dream of such a thing? Our Savior, Jesus Christ related to every aspect of our humanity, even to being conceived and growing in the womb of a woman.
Gathering the family around the meal table provides a wonderful opportunity for family interraction.
Ezekiel 19:10, 11 NLT says: “Your mother was like a vine planted by the water’s edge. It had lush, green foliage because of the abundant water. . .. It grew very tall, towering above all others. It stood out because of its height and its many lush branches”
What is your plan as you begin homeschooling your children each day? Are you facing the huge challenge of completing all the curriculums you purchased for each child? Your goal is to make sure you get through them all?
Repost. Very true words.
Are you currently facing an impossible situation? Can I encourage you to not look at the “impossible” situation, but to look to God? Did you know that the word “impossible” means nothing to God? It’s not in His vocabulary.
The best way to live!
Proverbs 15:15 says: “All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.”
Satan loves to blind our eyes to God’s wondrous plans and truths. Because he is at war against women (Genesis 3:16), he loves to blind them about the power of their womb. Oh yes, now he is confusing women’s minds so they cannot even answer the question, “What is a woman?”