Recently, I traveled coast to coast and noticed the changing seasons across the United States. Where I live in California, we don’t really have a fall or winter. Yes, it gets down into the 40s, but it never freezes. Yes, we have a very brief spring, but since it doesn’t freeze, we don’t have spring bulbs to brighten our planters and yards. What we do have is very nice weather year-round and very hot summers with no rain and no humidity to speak of. That would be 10 months of FINE WEATHER.
This normal for me got me to thinking about the seasons in our homes and how we prepare for each season in terms of decorating, entertainment, and the expectations we as wives, mothers, sisters, and leaders in our communities prepare for each season.
A good friend of mine who has since gone on to glory, Devi Titus, always said this: “Home is where the heart is, and home is where faith begins.” Home is where we begin to teach and plant the seeds of faith to our children and grandchildren. We model what we want them to see, learn and emulate by reading our Bible, praying at meals, and serving others generously.
Remember the first day in your first home. Maybe it was an apartment, or perhaps a townhouse, a cottage on a property from a friend, or perhaps you were lucky enough to be carried over the threshold of a single family home. At that moment, your family’s story began. As you place the dishes in the kitchen cabinets, dress the beds with sheets, pillows, and covers, as you stock your refrigerator and pantry, as you place furniture, hang drapes and wash windows, do laundry for the first time, stock your bathroom with supplies, unpack the boxes, and create a loving, warm home environment, you are beginning to write the first pages of your family’s story.
Many times, I have taught that it is your job to be the hands and feet of Jesus in your home. Pray for the head that will lay on that pillow where you just made the bed. Pray for the family members as you wash, fold and put away the laundry for each person. Pray for your home as you clean it. Pray that all those who come through your front door, are blessed, protected and welcomed into a Christ-Centered Home. I am a big believer in praying a hedge of protection around your home and every person within its walls.
As the seasons and years fly by you are the person who begins and keeps the “Family Traditions” alive and well. Managing our expectations around “Family Traditions,” is perhaps the hardest of all these jobs. As you children grow, leave the nest, marry, get jobs, get more educations and move away this is a hard reality we all must face. What are some of your “Family Traditions?” Do you set a place for Jesus at your family table? Do you pray at every meal? Do you eat meals together? Do you attend church weekly or more often together? Do you and your family serve your community together? Does extended family come to visit regularly? Do you, your spouse, and your children get together and plan the school year, after-school activities, and vacations, and create white space time for each family member? What do you do at the holidays: Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, Easter, Father’s Day, 4th of July, Memorial Day, 1st day of Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. So many opportunities to create memories and traditions!
Your home is where you create a safe environment for your child as they grow to fail, to rebound, learn from their experience and put life in a good perspective from which they can grow up with a well-adjusted attitude about life’s inevitable failures, wins, and growth opportunities. As your children grow they learn how to be responsible. The most important lesson is this: Every decision they make has a consequence – a good consequence or a bad consequence and that GOD sees their thoughts, words, and actions even if we as parents are not present. This is a HUGE lesson and must be taught from a young age.
We teach our family the Bible, God’s commandments, His promises and the stories that explain these truths so they will see God’s hand since the beginning of time.
Our homes through the many seasons of life is where your children learn who they are in God’s eyes, not through “influencers on social media.” They learn how to be a mother, wife, father, husband and so on through our modeling of these roles in our homes. Home is an ANCHOR, and a child needs to know they are safe, not judged, and learn to take responsibility for their actions, words, and to apologize for the same in a timely sincere manner.
God has always had a grand design for women in the home and their role there. The Bible is full of stories of women from all walks of life and how they turned around and repented, and how they learned Godly wisdom to become the woman God designed them to be. These valiant women played big roles in the rearing of children, in their roles as sisters, leaders, wives, and mothers, and in the history of their people.
Take a moment now, and think about what you have just read. Where might you need to get on your knees and pray and repent? Ask God, what He would have you change, add, or delete from what you are currently doing in the seasons of your life and home.
Thank Him for the information, the blessings He has provided you. Thank Him for your spouse, your children and ask Him how He wants you to step up and out and change yourself in this very important role He has given you.
Send me an email at the address below, and I will help you to begin your journey.
janice@janicebastanicoaching.com
8914 Collina Ct.
Granite Bay, CA 95746
908-229-3797
www.janicebastanicoaching.com
www.johnmaxwellgroup.com/janicebastani
