How does a godly woman and mother build up a strong home life? With all the craziness going on in our world and local communities, it’s difficult to know what the priorities are.
Probably the easiest standard to evaluate your family and home life is by talking with other women and mothers while waiting to pick your kids up from school, chatting with your neighbor, or over coffee with your bestie. You weigh if the difficult things that are going on in your family are worse or better than your conversation-friend. If everything is going better than the lives of your friends, then you think you’re doing well enough.
But is that the standard we should evaluate our home lives and family with?
Navigating many questions
There are so many questions to consider when working to improve your home life.
These questions below only touch the surface of what we need to work on with our families and take to God for wisdom and direction. But these are the current issues that cry out to me and affect our home life. May God lead us even in the small things to do what’s right and beneficial for ourselves and our families.
Where do we draw the line with screen time and content?
What kinds of things should we allow and where should we draw the line and say these TV shows, videos or games aren’t good for us?
With our kids, how do we decide about internet use, what age, how long, late-night texting friends and more?
What is the best standard for us to use as Jesus followers?
Since the Bible was written before the internet came into play, how do we find wisdom in leading our families?
Mothers, for all your questions about your family, search the Bible for Scriptures and ask God to help you know if it will build up your family or tear it down.
God’s word says, “A wise woman builds her home, but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands” (Proverbs 14:1).
Think about the things you can do with your family to help build a strong godly home life. Make a list of those things with your spouse and kids. Find unity in what would make your family healthier. Start by choosing one thing from your list to work on or add to your family’s time together.
Here’s some good options:
- Pray and read Scripture together each day (mealtimes or other)
- Attend church together
- Have family conversations over issues that arise
- Make your home safe, peaceful, joy-filled
- Remove cussing and add in polite words
- Build each other up
- Spend time together as a family (not too busy in sports, clubs, separate activities)
- Have rules for resolving conflict
- Express your love for each other
Here are some great guiding Scriptures:
Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32).
So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband (Ephesians 5:33).
Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins (I Peter 4:8).
Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you (Exodus 20:12).
Let’s not allow our family life to slowly decay and evolve into something that isn’t healthy. God is willing to help us. He not only created us, offered salvation from our sinful selves, but also gave us His Word to read for guidance and help with our families.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This article was written by Jamie Lynn, and was originally published by the Baptist Beacon, newsjournal of the Baptist State Convention of Michigan.
