Friday, August 04, 2017

Home Week Day 5



It is dreamy and wonderful to have a Sunday afternoon to sit alongside the bubbling mountain creek and journal, listen and reflect. It is so easy to want this every day but that isn't my season of life right now so I'm trying to squeeze in quiet moments here and there when I can!

As most weeks, this week didn't turn out to be what I thought it would be in the beginning or even really what I hoped it would be. But, God was with me and I did spend time in His Word. It was what He wanted for me in serving my family and taking care of needed medical things.

Home routines are one of my favorite things to talk about so I hope we can continue this series next week and continue the heart examination along with looking at what is working and what isn't in our homes.



Meanwhile, let's finish off this week by finishing our reflection on Proverbs 24:3-4.

How are the rooms of my home filled with rare and beautiful treasures through knowledge?

- This one is a little harder to come up with a bullet list of thoughts on but I do love beauty and I love the beauty that comes from hearts who spend time with God and then live that out daily.

- I notice the word filled which implies not a skimpy helping but heaping. Filled up to the brim and spilling out to those around us - that is where our testimony lies and how we can use our homes and hearts to share God with others.

- I notice the word rare which causes me to realize this is not common or ordinary. It is rare and beautiful. It is treasured.

- It is not merely the head knowledge that fills our homes with this beautiful and rare treasure but when it sinks down into our hearts and our feet take action as well.



What connections do I see between the three phrases and key words: wisdom, knowledge and understanding?

- It strikes me that the foundation is already laid {wisdom} and the home is already established {understanding}. Now we move in and begin living life in this place. This is where the true beauty of our homes come from: using the knowledge, wisdom and understanding we receive from spending time with God and obeying what we learn in His Word. That is the rare and beautiful treasure that fills the rooms of our homes and hearts.

-  Any one of the three alone is not as powerful as all three of the virtues together. Wisdom is great but without knowledge and understanding it is not up to its full potential. The same holds true for knowledge and understanding if tried to honor alone. Just like our homes require not only a foundation but also walls and rooms and furnishings. We would not want walls with no foundation and a home with only a foundation would be equally unpractical.

- It is orderly in both construction and character. The home is built in the correct order: foundation, establishing, filling. So our hearts grow in an orderly way with God at the helm: wisdom, understanding, knowledge. I love that the word order jumps out in between the lines of these verses as that is what I am craving and praying for in the days leading up to school starting and getting back into our school year routines.

- I love that God used a home for this visual picture of our spiritual growth. Isn't this where so much spiritual formation and growth takes place not only in our children's hearts but our own as well? Home is the place where we should be able to be our truest selves, most relaxed and comfortable, most loved and invested in. Of course God's home is in our hearts - so He builds the foundation of wisdom, He establishes this home with understanding and He fills it with the rare and beautiful treasure of His presence within.



Here is a two-page printable to finish off this Home Week! I hope you've enjoyed it, I had fun creating the pages for your use in quiet time and the time I had in God's Word and reflecting on it was a blessing to me as well. Looking forward to talking about Home Routines next week!

I would love to hear something God taught you, reminded you of or laid on your heart this week!





2 comments:

Mrs. Chrissy T said...

Truly love these posts this week. Thank you.

Jessica Knapp said...

Thank you, Monica, for these posts this week. I love when you provide printables! So helpful to study and ponder right along with you. This week God taught me that there is little I need to do in my home before school starts other than be with and play with my children. Spend quality time with them, get the necessary supplies for school too, but forget the house and projects and just play with them. Soon they won't want to play with me! Thank you for your time spent in this space; it is such a blessing to me.