Behind closed doors! Making your Home Sing!

When you leave Church and head through your house door what happens? Does the joy and loving atmosphere continue into the living room and through to the kitchen? How long does this last, if at all? Or maybe as soon as you get into the car to leave the Church car park, your joy quickly fades?

I know that more often than I like these things happen to my family! It is often easy to display the fruit of the Spirit;

(²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control." Galatians 5.)

at Church among fellow believers, singing praise to our awesome God and loving each other. At the moment our Church is a pretty special place to be. Everywhere you look there are wonderful little ones and more on the way! We have a diverse group of believers who are committed to reaching out to people who are not Christians. Sometimes I feel like I just don't want to leave that place of sanctuary!

When we leave that place and join our lives in the world again I know I find it hard to be consistently displaying the fruit of the Spirit. What I would like is to maintain the joy and peace I feel at Church in my home. Jesus doesn't just live at Church (I think I forget this sometimes!), he is most definitely everywhere, and especially in our homes. I sometimes find that I am not at all happy with the way I conduct my behaviour with my kids and hubby at home. I am still the same person just a little more snappish!

The thought has crossed my mind that at Church we put a front on and at home it is the real deal. However, the more I ponder this, the more I realise that this is not the case. When I am among fellow believers I honestly feel that we bring out the best in each other. As a group of believers we can encourage one another, admonish, confess sins, pray for each other. This is why it is so important for a Christian to be part of a Church of like minded people and to have regular fellowship with other believers.

Behind the closed doors of our home it is all to easy to fall into old habits and treat our nearest and dearest in ways that are not particularly Christian. I would say that my household is a Christian one so why do I find it hard to maintain a peaceful, joy filled atmosphere?

So I have thought of a few of the ways that we can try and create a more Jesus filled home and make my home sing and if you have any ideas please feel free to add them! -

• husbands and wives who pray together stay together! We have only recently started doing this again as a couple and it really does make a difference. It holds us accountable to each other by praying together. It means we discuss Godly things and we should consult God through prayer in all things. We can pray for the kids together as well.
  

• Get your Bible out and read it! Hey something I do! They are always sitting around the living room, easy to grab, the kids have one and I even read it in front of the kids. Aren't we fortunate in the West to be able to do this freely.
  

• Display God's word in your home. Hang frames with verses on them on the walls or sit on shelves. I think it is good just to make His word more visible and just glancing at these can make a difference and remind me about the Lord.
  

• Pray throughout the day. I am not the best at this but I think it would help me to just pray at intervals during the day which are particularly stressful. An example is dinner time in our home. The kids get tired and Colin has to entertain them while I cook up a culinary delight in the kitchen! My two can be little monkeys at the dining table and are certainly not fine diners. I think it would help me to try and pray about this time of day before we get to it!
  

• Open our homes, become more hospitable! Colin and I certainly don't do this often enough. When we do we are always so glad that we did. I don't think I am a natural host but this really shouldn't stop us.
  

^"35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in," Matthew 25:35, NIV.

• Listen to worship music at home. I love singing even though I sound a bit like a strangled cat. I used to listen quite frequently to this type of music at home but really haven't done so lately.

³ Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,

⁴ praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,

⁵ praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.

⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD.

Here is a wee video of a wonderful song that I am sure some of you will have heard and love, enjoy and make your home sing! You can join Nan at Moms the Word and learn more about making our homes sing.