Sunday, April 27, 2008

How is Jesus the center of your home???


Well...I sure hope you had a great weekend! The weather has been BEAUTIFUL here in West TN and it is my language.....I love the sunshine and warmer temps....its good for the soul I do believe! Even snuck in a big ole Sunday afternoon nap.....I'm tellin ya....nothin like it!!





Ok, a few weeks ago, I asked for ways your family has Jesus in the center of every day living in your home.....your answers were SPECTACULAR!!! So....here is a list of your comments. I hope that someone will come across this blog and find something new to do within their home.





I'm all about Jesus being outside of a box. He's way bigger than 2 days a week. He's everywhere y'all. Enjoy the fire out of Him every single day!!!


1. Ok I am not an expert but we talk about God in everything we do.He is our life and in our home.We say things like "did you see the amazing sunrise God made for us this morning?" "What was your favorite color in the sunrise that He painted for you?"When we have a conflict we ask "Would that have made God happy? How would He have wanted you to react?" We have scripture that we apply it to as well.There is a great book and mommy guide that we have used to help us in this area as wellIt is by Ginger Plowman and the book is called "Don't make me count to three!" and the guide is called Wise Words for Moms.



2. The best thing you can do as parents for your children is to love one another. Let them daily see the love you and your spouse share for one another, and for the Lord. Show them love in action.

3. At every opportunity, we have tired to 1) point out qualities in our children that were similar to those of Jesus...our daughter is very compassionate, for example. And we would talk about how Jesus had compassion on the unlovely...the beggars, the hurting, etc. and 2) we tried to get them to see that if a friend was mean or said/did hurtful things, that there is probably something going on in their lives that caused them to react/act that way and wouldn't it be the right to do to respond as Jesus would.

4. As we fold laundry, we pray for the person that will wear the piece of clothing we are folding. If we are all folding together, it's a sentence prayer, if I'm folding alone, I pray a little longer! :)We talk about the sunrise, the sunset, the food we're eating, the friends God has given us, whatever we are doing we incorporate God into it. I'm finding that the more we do this, the more the girls do this on their own...The biggest thing has been during our quiet time. For so long, I always felt like I needed to be totatlly alone for my quiet time. Um....wrong. God showed me that if the girls were up when I started to do my Bible study..then let them participate. So now, we all do our Bible study together..They have their own devotion guides and it's not adnormal to see all of us with a cup of coffee (or hot tea if you're under 13) with our Bible study. I wouldn't trade those mornings for the world. It's so precious...

5. I have 2 Bible verses written out & posted on our frig. If there is an argument or unkind thing said, I make them tell me what our verse says & how that hurts God's heart. We also are working on learning Bible verses with sign language. Little kids are such sponges and can learn so easily, I'm finding. Plus, it goes into their hearts. Lastly, growing up I remember making sure that our family ate together every night & we talked about EVERYTHING! My parents made sure that everything was open grounds as long as it was said with respect...but in everything they pointed us back to the cross & to Jesus. Through that family time we saw the love of Christ.

6. We make sure that our kids understand the 10% of everything they get goes back to God who ultimately gave it to them.


Ok...that's enough for now. I'll post the rest in a week or so!! Y'all have some GREAT things that you are doing in your home. Keep it up!!

Now, have a blast with Jesus this week. Find Him in your busy day. And, praise Him in every situation that comes your way. He's for you...not against you!! He loves you dearly and you are His beloved!!

Hugs and blessings~
Fran

17 comments:

Angela Baylis said...

You are amazing parents! I would have given anything to be one of your children! I may have to print this one out to give to my kids when they have my grandchildren one day! Your blog continues to bless me!
Love to you, Fran.
Angie xoxo

His Girl said...

hey, these are great! I love these tips & can't wait to read more!

A Stone Gatherer said...

What a great idea! Thanks for posting all the comments! I was thinking as I was reading them of another thing we do! Every Monday morning I write a verse on the bathroom mirror for the kids.

Denise said...

Have a blessed week my friend, love you.

Dana said...

More great ideas...thanks for sharing!

BethAnne said...

Great ideas! I was looking forward to seeing what people said - I need all the parenting help I can get!

Joanne@ Blessed... said...

Just love those ideas!

I am probably too late, but in our home we take time each morning before the children head off to school to do a quick devotion with them. Now on the weekends our teenagers are each teaching us! David does the Saturday devotion and Meg does the Sunday devotion before church. Their dad and I have been amazed when the children teach us. We even heard that last week both David (13) and Meghan (16) got into their first Biblical debate. They were debating whether or not Adam was next to Eve when she took a bite of the forbidden fruit. After reading God's word on it, my husband and I debated too!

Blessings my sweet friend...

Joanne

Tanja said...

Those are great ideas!

Sometimes, the way you word stuff, you remind me of Beth Moore. Stuff like, "I'm all about Jesus being outside of a box. He's way bigger than 2 days a week. He's everywhere y'all. Enjoy the fire out of Him every single day!!!" I just love it.

I tagged you on my blog. 3 random things about you. Hope that's okay.

We

Earen said...

Love the picture of you family. I look at how big your 3 boys are and think that someday that will be my 3 boys & I can't believe it. Blessings to you!

connorcolesmom said...

Fran I love the pic of you and your guys
I also love the tips for bringing God into out lives
I am going to start doing the laundry one - where you pray for the person that is going to wear that article of clothing
Maybe that will take my mind off of how much I dislike doing laundry and put it on praising God!
Much love
Kim

marine's words said...

great ideas!!
and now you know there are different kind's of uterus!!LOL!!!!!
I am always so bless by you whenever you come around.marina

jennyhope said...

I love you fran and I love the family pic as well and the encouragement to Keep Looking to Jesus

Bev Brandon @ The Fray said...

Love your family photo...
Yes, I'm very grateful for the job
but what will make me
jump up and down
is meeting YOU
So love your heart for our
mighty God, the Author of
your blog and heart.

Speaking Thru Me Ministries said...

could you all be any cuter - just precious!!! love it!!! Leigh

ocean mommy said...

LOVE the picture!

And I really love all the ideas! There are some good ones there and I'm looking forward to reading more soon!

Have a great week!
steph.

Alana said...

Those are great ideas. We need all the help we can get, don't we? Thanks for sharing!

connie said...

These are great Ideas I am going to look into starting some new things around my house...

I'm tagging you for a Meme A 6 word Memoir of your self check my blog for the rules have fun...
Connie
GBU


I blog so you can get a glimpse into my life as wife, mom of 3 boys, and someone who simply wants to bless others along the way. Have fun and be sweet :)


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