Photo by artur84/freedigitalphotos.net

Home. Why are we afraid of it? Afraid to be there all day with our children? When did everywhere else become the better place to be? We go searching for better food, more creative outlets, entertainment, and better education.

We are given the opportunity to govern within our four walls on our little slice of the world. I feel as though we take it for granted because we fear we aren’t good at it. Good at making a house a home.

Back in the day, the home defined and gave purpose. It was the center, the core, and gathering place where all good things stem from. It was a place that was cherished and well maintained for functionality. It’s where the sick were nurtured to health, the love of Jesus was taught, and real life walked.

Why have we given up so easily on this place called home? Everywhere we turn we have a pulling on us to leave our center. The distractions attempt to pull us away from the heart beat of our family.

It’s not too late to turn this around. We can bring our homes back to life so that the heart beat is thriving through each and every person that enters. We can make it so that life springs forth through our open doors and windows to a world hurting. Let’s be the women that entice our families with homemade goodness wafting though our kitchens, let’s bring in every book we can get our hands on filled with stories of heroes, wars, and love. Let’s study what turns our four walls into life-giving medicine.

We have the ability to be the home front to a needy generation in search for belonging. Home is the building block, the foundation, the underpinning, the beginning and essence. Let’s make it a good one.

What kind of creative ways do you keep your home the center? Subscribe and Share!

Sharing this with: The Prairie Homestead,  A Mama’s story, Raising Arrows, The Modest Mom, What Joy is Mine, Growing Home, Time Warp Wife, Thankful Homemaker, Mamal Diane, Teaching What is Good,  Mom’s the word, conerstone cofessions, A proverbs 31 wife, Some of the best things in life are mistakes, Let this mind be in you, A Wise Woman Builds her home, Deep Roots at Home, Graced Simplicity, Raising Homemakers, Women Living Well, Hope in Every Season, Jill’s Home remedies, Little Natural Cottage, Our simple country Life, Raising Mighty Arrows, The Purposeful Mom, Happy and Blessed Home, Homemaker by Choice, Your Thriving Family, My Joy Filled Life. New Life Steward, Hometead simple, Let this Mind Be in You, Proverbial homemaker, Just another Mom, The Life of faith, What Joy is Mine,  Simple Life of a Fire Wife, Refelctions, Morsels of Life, Our Family Grace, Table For Seven, Yes Theyre All Ours The multitasking mommy Nourishing Joy,Hip Homeschool moms, Time Warp Wife,

Photo by Dan/Freedigitalphotos

We empty, we pour, we ebb, we flow, we exhaust, we purge every drop of life-giving element till there is nothing left.

As a mother it’s easy to give with little ones under foot. They are always taking, pulling, tugging, capturing it all. The good, bad, and the ugly.

There must be a shift.

We must ensure we are full of the best God provides for us to offer. Rather we are pouring or they are simply stripping what’s left of us, let it be beautiful and full of life and sacrifice without depletion.

We must be purposeful about staying filled to the brim, well fed, satisfied, intense, deep and strong bodied.

Through hard lessons learned, it’s time we replenish what has been emptied in order to pour out. To pour into the lives of our family when the world attempts to deplete them. When we do this we bless, uplift, comfort, and are able to allow our cups to run over to the people who need it most.

The practicality behind it? We’ve got to get our thirst quenched with the Word of God, we have to mentally hand our burdens, anxiety, and worries to the hands that gave it all. We must move our bodies, drink water, read some good stories, laugh, cry it out, dance it out, talk it out, live it out.

Who’s with me? Any secrets on staying full? Subscribe and share! Join in on Facebook!

It’s a struggle. Every day I would fight. Fight against my God given default.

I would look in admiration at what I felt was the typical organized home school momma. I did everything I could to mimic her. I thought her actions were superior and thus would be my keys to success. She had the beautiful planner completely filled out with every child’s home school lesson, appointments, cleaning schedule, and date night. Meanwhile, I’m over hear drowning in sticky notes on top of my expensive planner with papers coming out of the side. Her plans are etched in pen all the same color or perhaps even color coded, best off all, she always knows where her pen is. She isn’t like me. She doesn’t go looking for it when it is stuck in her hair. I’m sure hers always has ink too.

Her home school day is filled with 30 minute increments of crafts and academic success. Not one subject is missed. On the other hand you have me… “Let’s read a chapter out of one of our favorites….Hmm let me scrub that toilet real quick…Hey! Who wants to go outside?…Let’s read some history…Let me throw that load of laundry in…Oh yes! Who wants to make some cookies?”  Sigh, I’m all over the place.

This successful woman rises to her alarm clock before the rest of her family. She drinks her water, exercises, reads the Bible, and glances at her planner of what her day will entail. I however have the same plan in my head, but more than likely you will find me with coffee in hand sitting on the porch with my other early risers.

I’ve been called it all. The girl who flies by the seat of her pants, too laid back, disorganized, type B, you name it. I have fought against all of this with every ounce of my being ever since I started having children, but have only walked away in frustration.

It has been a process, but I am slowly starting to let it go. I believe that God knew each one of my children needed a hippy momma who couldn’t follow a schedule to save her life. He knew I needed them and each of their quirky personalities. We are no surprise to Him. We are what you would call tailor-made for each other, a perfect fit.

I have started to embrace the way God made me. Since I have begun to this we have continued to grow in peace in our home. I am letting go of the guilt and lingering on the porch a bit longer. I am convinced that my craziness will produce well rounded, go with the flow kind of kids:)

How about you? What is your God given default button? What traits and talents do you naturally bring to your family?

Give it a try, don’t fight it, and see what happens. Ask God to sharpen what He has already given you and to help you to see all the ways you benefit your family!

I am a thinker. I am a ponderer. I’ve been this way for as long as I can remember. This week has been no exception.

It seems as though the typical cycle continues. The string of events sail through the air with sweet smells and memories until the wind dies down and doubts, heart ache, and burdens grow heavier on tired shoulders.

I have been tossing around the question “What is life?” “Am I being a good steward with what I’ve been given?”

The sweet, optimistic side of me tells me life is about savoring the moments. The family cookouts at Granny’s, long phone conversations with my mom, the porch swing with my love after the children are asleep, their sweet arms around my neck, waking early, staying up late, first lighting bugs…I could go on and on of the richness and sweetness that God allows me to experience on a daily basis.

Through this past week the Holy Spirit has been stirring in my heart and soul just as He always does. I am seeing that though the sweetness of flying above the clouds are in fact God’s blessings…even more so are the struggles, challenges, and heart ache.

When we face those things perspective begins to shift. All we see are people, relationships, and togetherness. When it is all said and done how we love others, support them, and show them Jesus are THE ONLY THING LIFE IS ABOUT AND WORTH LIVING FOR. As believers what we do has eternal value, WE ARE ETERNAL. The entire purpose of God breathed life is to impact the world for Him and bring them to eternity.

When we can fully grasp this, and wrap our brain around it then we can see that the hard times are not in vain. They are only glimpse of perspective of eternity. God pulls us closer all the more to share the secrets of a truly fulfilled life. Love as He loved every. single. day. in every circumstance.

I don’t want to finish my life neat and manicured. I want to be spent up, used up, hair a crazy mess, every last bit of me used for His sake. That’s my answer, that’s what I want my life to be about.

I fell down. My strength, compassion, faith, and hope failed me. The joys became aggravations and the constant demands put my own needs to the top of the list. This was me a few weeks ago. Satan won a few small victories in his corner as I ran in circles of self-doubt and pity. His goal had been met for a short while, let things look perfect on the outside while my heart was heavy.

But… there is a good God who lets you fall every now and then so He can come in and sweep you off your feet. Teaching me in the most gentlest of ways about His truths and how they don’t revolve around my circumstances. His blessings are abundant today just like every day. He is near and close. He is refining and working.

It is in the ups and downs, the cycles, that are mapped out to perfect what God has started in me. My eyes are on Him today, may He ALWAYS get all the glory.

Been going through your own ups and downs lately? Share what God is doing for you:)

I think as Christians it is very easy for us to know God’s will. We feel a conviction, pray about it, then with the Holy Spirit’s help we change our perspective or a way of doing things based on the convictions we have felt from God. Sounds good right?

Then there is the world yelling ever so loudly. We start to slowly listen to our flesh. The world around us has a way of making that VERY easy. Before you know it those convictions seem a little difficult to maintain or maybe even too extreme. Throw in a couple of negative comments that hurt your feeling in there along with a bad day or two and you find yourself second guessing what the Lord clearly spoke to your heart.

Ladies, this is a trap we ALL fall into no matter what you feel the Lord calling you to do. Maybe it is to stay home and raise your children? Maybe it’s to stop drinking or smoking? Maybe its to home school? Maybe it is to limit media? Maybe it is to give over your fertility to God? Maybe it is to stop frivolously spending money? Maybe it is to start exercising and caring for your body?

God never promises a walk on easy street. However, He does promise that when you deny yourself and listen to His sweet voice speaking to your heart that He has already provided you with every power to do what He has called. Not just enough power to get by, but enough to do it well.

Let’s encourage one another of the sweet rewards and victory that is ours when we follow Jesus.

I spoke with a sweet momma the other night who was sharing her heart with me. She said she was constantly reminding herself to stop comparing her family to others. She spoke of a community she used to be involved in where everyone always seemed so perfect. All of their children were well-behaved, neatly dressed, and were all performing above grade level.

I reminded her that this was not reality, only her perception. A perception that she has recognized and is praying for God to work out in her own heart.

This got me thinking. What about those women who really DO look like they have it all together? I think it is important to remember that they are struggling the same as you and me just in different ways. Perhaps they feel they HAVE to be perfect. They fear failure, or feel as though they have to live up to a certain image. What an exhausting, trapped life that must be.

Both types of women are letting others predict their life for them and how they go about daily living. They are looking to others for their cues on what is acceptable and what is not. They are also using others as a measuring stick for their own families.

I will be the first to admit that I have the crazy looking family with dirt on all my kids faces. Maybe that’s why people like hanging around me…I make them feel better about themselves:) haha! I am sure those of you who know me well are laughing. Anyways, the thing is, I have finally gotten to the place where I have stopped the comparison game. I will always be different from everyone else. I will have my own struggles and strengths.

This is where God’s freedom comes in. The word, “Freedom,” has been ringing a lot in my heart lately. It is the way God meant for us to live and the only way we can truly get it is through Him.

We are free in Christ to put away unneccessary expectations. Simply put, our ways are not His ways. He’s got this. He knows what He is doing.

If by some chance, you catch us on one of those days where everyone is bathed, has napped, has full bellies and smiles; and you wonder why we are so perfect. Just know that we aren’t. We shouldn’t be. God uses the weak and unexpected ones to do Kingdom work.

Lift up your heads mammas. We are all in this together.

I encourage you all today to stop looking around and look upward. The strengths and weaknesses you have can all be used by Him. He created you that way!