Recently, after a morning full of breaking up spats and nagging about clutter in the kids' room which had spilled over to my living room, I decided to try a new approach. I gathered the kids on the floor of the living room and asked them a question, "What makes our home a place where we love to be?" Surprisingly, they came up with some good answers for little ones. Here are some of the things they said that I wrote down:
pretty
calm and peaceful
being taken care of
being fed
keep you healthy
helping take care of each other
kept safe
our things kept safe
rules to keep us safe and happy
prayer
kindness
gifts from my family
free time to play or read
clean and neat
allowances for being part of the family
not asking for God's help
disobedience
laziness
anger
whining
disobedience
laziness
anger
whining
Just a few things were holding us back from a whole list of things that we wanted to make up our home. It doesn't take much to keep us from God's best, does it?
From this exercise, we went on to more practical ways each one could help. To my surprise, most of the things I was nagging them about were on their lists. "I can keep my room clean", "I'll pick up my toys when I'm not using them", "I'll share my things", "I won't fight". I even got brave and asked them what Mommy could do to help make our home better.
I would love to tell you that our home has been the perfect example of the first list since we had this little "meeting". No, it is definitely a work in progress, but we had to have a starting point. No family can decide what needs to be done until they decide where they want to go.
What about you? What makes a home a place you want to be? Now think to yourself and discuss with your family: What is keeping me from this and what can I do as an individual to correct it?
I would love to hear what you come up with in answer to the first question! Keep on reading this week as we explore what makes a home a place where we want to be.
From this exercise, we went on to more practical ways each one could help. To my surprise, most of the things I was nagging them about were on their lists. "I can keep my room clean", "I'll pick up my toys when I'm not using them", "I'll share my things", "I won't fight". I even got brave and asked them what Mommy could do to help make our home better.
I would love to tell you that our home has been the perfect example of the first list since we had this little "meeting". No, it is definitely a work in progress, but we had to have a starting point. No family can decide what needs to be done until they decide where they want to go.
What about you? What makes a home a place you want to be? Now think to yourself and discuss with your family: What is keeping me from this and what can I do as an individual to correct it?
I would love to hear what you come up with in answer to the first question! Keep on reading this week as we explore what makes a home a place where we want to be.
How cute and inspiring! Sometimes our home feels like chaos, but I know we can achieve a more peaceful, loving home with God's help!
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