This is the conclusion of our discussion about managing our homes in a series I’ve called, Maytag, messes and meals. You can listen to this post here on Refresh Her podcast.
In the previous posts we’ve dealt with the laundry, the housekeeping and the meals. Let’s wrap up with some thoughts that will encourage you in your day to day management.
- Prepare your heart for the day. Talk to the Lord about your day and your work. Give it to Him.
Ps. 90:17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
Proverbs 16:3
Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.
So often, the things I worried about and wondered how I’d get done never happened! Giving it to the Lord keeps you from worrying before it takes place, then allows you to see a gracious God moving things out of the way and/or giving you strength to get it done.
But it starts with preparing your heart.
- Deal with only today. Matt. 6:34 – Take therefore no thought (Don’t worry) for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Be not anxious about tomorrow; today has its own challenges! Augustine took Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. and said, “Number each day as your last day. (One day it will be).
- Don’t think about the mess the house will be in tomorrow after your company goes home. Enjoy your friends today.
- Don’t fret about how much laundry you’ll have to do after the kids played in the rain. Enjoy the memory being made today.
- Don’t wonder how you’ll get it all done tomorrow after your busy day. Work today and prepare/plan ahead what you can.
3. Value each minute of today. Make each moment count for eternity. Think about the eternal, not the temporal. We remember moments not days. We tell young moms, the days are long, but the years are short. Those tiring days, those days of bad attitudes, sticky floors, and few pennies to spend will be forgotten in the years to come, and what you’ll remember are the special moments sprinkled in and among those days.
Make your home more about the people than you do the place. People – not things – create the memories in your home.
- Build habits/memories of bedtime Bible stories and prayer. Prayer at their bedside doesn’t have to stop when they become teens! They’re probably even more to pray about!
- Be the cheerful atmosphere in your home! Smile! Laugh! Don’t be a stick-in-the-mud! Is your face more often in a scowl instead of a smile? You’re the only one who can change that!
- Do fun things spontaneously – Lunch served in the backyard in your child’s tent.
- Plan for events! Friends packed into your living room to celebrate a birthday
- Commemorate National Days just for the sake of creating memories – National Ice cream Day, National Give Something Away Day – Search the National Day Calendar for fun ideas!
Here are three last helps as you manage your home –
1. Keep moving. Like the law of inertia, A body in motion will remain in motion! A body at rest will remain at rest.
2. Develop a routine – same place, same thing, same time. Do the worst first. If you do that, it will make your day more productive!
3. Say “No!” Make your plan for the day, then unless you are sure that God is moving you to Plan B, the answer is going to be “No” until that plan is complete. Say no to people, to yourself, your own indulgences and rash things.
Having a tidy home – a palatial home and beautiful clothes, all name brand, all washed, dried and pressed, and the best food prepared – steaks lobster, – whatever you’d like – all that would mean nothing if the atmosphere of that home is full of ugly attitudes and lacking in love.
King Solomoon reminded us of this truth in Prov. 15:16-17 – Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great riches and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.
It would be better to have a simple salad on chipped plates than to have filet mignon on fine china and eat it with hatred in our hearts.
We must keep our priorities straight. While we should plan for our work and our management, we have to remember that it all must be done with a right heart attitude – to do it for the glory of God and to minister to the people in our home. Without love for God and others, we have NOTHING.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. I Cor. 13:1
Peter Marshall said, “I was privileged to visit in a home that was to me, and I’m sure to the occupants of it, a little bit of heaven. ” Wouldn’t it be a blessing to those that walk through the threshold of our home to see it as a little bit of heaven? Fill it with LOVE, then out of that heart, manage all that God entrusts to you.
Refresh your attitude towards your home with a the right heart.
RefreshHer 