I recently read this wonderful post that I personally benefitted from, and that I felt was worth sharing. It is from the website raisinghomemakers.com. and was written by Renee Behringer. I hope that it will help others like me that want to build a home that brings glory to Him.

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




2) Offer life-giving and grace-filled words to husband 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. (Check out the Core Lies EBOOK for more info.)



7) Plan regular times away from home to rejuvenate and gain perspective. (A quiet time at Starbucks or Wegmans for 1 1/2 hours has been my most recent favorite.)



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



9) Play praise or worship music in home to lift everyone’s spirits. Our new family favorite is Michael W. Smith’s “A New Hallelujah”. (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?



All of these suggestions have risen out of a heart that longs to be this kind of woman, yet has consistently failed in all of these areas. Some suggestions are on my ‘impossible prayer list’ of what I’m asking God to do this year in my life! I have seen the ill effects of doing the opposite of what I’ve written. I know that I don’t want to live that way anymore! Instead, I’m striving to develop diligence in these areas to bring life to my home flowing over from the One Who gives life freely to all who ask. May He encourage us in our life-giving.