A heart at home...
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Memory Scripture: If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. Luke 16:10
As I washed my hands for the millionth time one day recently, a scripture passage popped into my head...{hello Jesus}
It was this one...
Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Matthew 23:26
I thought about the irony that I was scrubbing profusely to take away germs, when really, what I needed was a heart cleanse.
God cares for the cleanliness of our hearts over the cleanliness of our outer bodies.
I had to ask myself this question: Am I as concerned about my heart as I am my hands during this time?
Several days have passed since I asked that question.
God has re-routed this message to my mother heart.
Is the inside of my home as taken care of as I portray to the outside world?
God has a biblical design for families. The wife is to care, nurture, love, teach, to have self-control, to be kind, to be reverent.
Titus 2 makes it pretty clear our role as wife and mother.
Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Titus 2:3-5
So often, my heart gets this all tangled up.
I remember in 2012 when I first started blogging here on SHINE Girls. My life became a crazy train of chaos. My children were small.
Writing, teaching, and trying to disciple other women became my focus. For a while.
I had big plans. Big dreams. Big visions of teaching and encouraging women.
Yet, my home was beginning to show signs of cracks.
I was not listening to my kids.
I was not teaching them as much.
I was not caring for my husband the way I needed to be during that time.
But, because I was doing "God's Work", I thought it was okay.
Until, it wasn't.
Several things began to unravel, and God caught my attention.
The very thing I was trying to teach, was exactly what I was neglecting.
We can become so obsessed by our "mission", that we neglect our greatest mission of all....
Our home life.
I liked the way women's ministry felt.
I liked the attention.
I liked pouring into others.
I liked praying for others.
I liked it all.
However, my priorities were out of whack. In a big way.
Our fruit will not be everlasting unless we first bury those seeds deep into the soils of our homes.
Sometimes, on the outside, it looks like we are doing all the godly things.
When on the inside of our homes, it looks the exact opposite.
Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Matthew 23:26
I see no irony here that God has called us all back to our homes.
Do you see it?
We are circling our dinner tables again. We are talking. We are praying. We are listening to each other.
We are checking in on neighbors, instead of trying to reach the world through the internet.
When the teachers of the law asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was, Jesus replied..
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31
We have been given this opportunity. This chance to love our family. Embrace them. Nurture them. Teach them. Disciple them.
Our reach will broaden eventually, our fruit will expand.....but it starts in the home.
Our memory verse will remind us each day this week to take care of these little things at home. They are the big things.
Memory Scripture: If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. Luke 16:10
desiring clean hands and a clean heart,
jill
Subscribe to SHINE emails: Go here.
Memory Scripture: If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. Luke 16:10
As I washed my hands for the millionth time one day recently, a scripture passage popped into my head...{hello Jesus}
It was this one...
Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Matthew 23:26
I thought about the irony that I was scrubbing profusely to take away germs, when really, what I needed was a heart cleanse.
God cares for the cleanliness of our hearts over the cleanliness of our outer bodies.
I had to ask myself this question: Am I as concerned about my heart as I am my hands during this time?
Several days have passed since I asked that question.
God has re-routed this message to my mother heart.
Is the inside of my home as taken care of as I portray to the outside world?
God has a biblical design for families. The wife is to care, nurture, love, teach, to have self-control, to be kind, to be reverent.
Titus 2 makes it pretty clear our role as wife and mother.
Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Titus 2:3-5
So often, my heart gets this all tangled up.
I remember in 2012 when I first started blogging here on SHINE Girls. My life became a crazy train of chaos. My children were small.
Writing, teaching, and trying to disciple other women became my focus. For a while.
I had big plans. Big dreams. Big visions of teaching and encouraging women.
Yet, my home was beginning to show signs of cracks.
I was not listening to my kids.
I was not teaching them as much.
I was not caring for my husband the way I needed to be during that time.
But, because I was doing "God's Work", I thought it was okay.
Until, it wasn't.
Several things began to unravel, and God caught my attention.
The very thing I was trying to teach, was exactly what I was neglecting.
We can become so obsessed by our "mission", that we neglect our greatest mission of all....
Our home life.
I liked the way women's ministry felt.
I liked the attention.
I liked pouring into others.
I liked praying for others.
I liked it all.
However, my priorities were out of whack. In a big way.
Our fruit will not be everlasting unless we first bury those seeds deep into the soils of our homes.
Sometimes, on the outside, it looks like we are doing all the godly things.
When on the inside of our homes, it looks the exact opposite.
Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Matthew 23:26
I see no irony here that God has called us all back to our homes.
Do you see it?
We are circling our dinner tables again. We are talking. We are praying. We are listening to each other.
We are checking in on neighbors, instead of trying to reach the world through the internet.
When the teachers of the law asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was, Jesus replied..
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31
We have been given this opportunity. This chance to love our family. Embrace them. Nurture them. Teach them. Disciple them.
Our reach will broaden eventually, our fruit will expand.....but it starts in the home.
Our memory verse will remind us each day this week to take care of these little things at home. They are the big things.
Memory Scripture: If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. Luke 16:10
desiring clean hands and a clean heart,
jill
