Bringing JOY and PEACE Back To Your Home

Sunday's in my home are sacred. And for many reasons, I take advantage of Sunday's as a day to mentally and physically prepare for the week ahead. Below are some of the ways I've come up with that will help us as women and household managers, bring back the JOY and PEACE to our homes. I hope you enJOY these ideas!

♥ Listen to music. Turn it up. And dance! Include the family. Music releases tension and stress. Put on some energetic worship music and be silly together!

♥ Start a Family Gratitude Journal. Leave it out where the entire family can participate! Encourage everyone to write down 2-3 things per day that they are thankful for. It is entirely impossible to feel anger and gratefulness at the same time. Remaining thankful for the daily blessings in our lives makes for a JOY-filled life and a JOY-filled home!

♥ Light candles. Create a warm, inviting space and light candles as often as you can.

♥ Make it a habit of giving out 3 compliments to your family members every single day. It doesn't have to be elaborate; but it has to be authentic. Use phrases like, "You are so good at..." and "I am so thankful that you...". Mean it when you say it... just make sure you say it.

♥ Cook together. Select one or two days a week where you and your family make a meal together. Allow children to be a part of the process. Take pictures of what you've made and include the photo in a family recipe box attached to the recipe.

♥ Write love letters to one another. Leave love letters, sticky notes, and cards for each other. Tell one another how proud of them you are and how much you love them. Leave them on mirrors, closet doors, steering wheels of cars. Create a culture of love in your home!

♥ Help to carry another's load. Galatians 6:2 says, "Carry one another burdens." When you see a family member struggling in a particular area, love them enough to help carry their load. Help with homework, do their chores, fix something of theirs that's broken, run an errand for them. By helping others, it takes the focus off of us and our woes and worries.

♥ Forgive quickly and often. People make mistakes and we often tend to hurt the ones we love the most. So - forgive often and let your family members off the hook for not being perfect. Say it out loud, "I forgive you" and watch how JOY and PEACE are restored in your relationships.

♥ Don't allow gossip to enter your house. Ephesians 4:29 says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” When you feel tempted to say something negative about another person, take a couple deep breaths and then say out loud, "No, it's not nice, so I am not going to say anything." This helps with accountability. If others in your family know you're trying to behave by not speaking harshly, they will hold you to it when you forget, as we often will.

♥ Plan meals ahead for the entire week. By taking the time Sunday to plan your meals out in advance, it reduces stress during busy, hectic weeks. Cut, chop, and slice ahead of time too, to make cooking less of a hassle for your mid week meals.

♥ Find ways to serve others often. Get the whole family involved in encouraging and serving others. Make meals (and not because there is an illness or loss - but just because!), send hand-written cards, visit family members, buy flowers for someone, purchase a cup of coffee for a complete stranger. By doing these small acts of kindness, we restore JOY to our souls!

♥ Refrain from negative talk or discussing the days "bad events" for at least the first hour of reentering your home. Negative breeds negative. Create your home to be a safe, encouraging place, where family members are excited to come to. Talk about only POSITIVE and UPLIFTING things before discussing the more defeating parts of your day. By doing this, we create an environment that fosters JOY instead of bitterness and disappointment.

♥ Be genuinely excited to see others. Give hugs often and make others feel welcome to be in your presence. Ask them questions about themselves - ask how their children are and how their job is going. Be genuinely interested in the lives of those around you. It makes such a huge difference!

♥ Serve each another. See an empty glass at the dinner table - fill it. Remove the dirty plates from not only your place setting, but someone else's as well. Give up a favorite item you own to someone else. We look more like Jesus when we selflessly serve others. We restore JOY and PEACE to our lives when we can humbly think of others before ourselves.

♥ Read together in the evening 1-2 nights per week instead of watching movies or T.V. Interactively take turns reading a chapter of a favorite book and then talk about what you've read together.

♥ Do the hard things first. Don't procrastinate. Make the phone call you're dreading, finish the project you've been putting off. Do the hard things first and get them out of the way for your day so that you can live in freedom to do the things you enjoy doing for the remainder of your day.

♥ Celebrate often. Even the things you would consider "little". By celebrating, we are communicating love to those within our homes. We are saying,“You are THAT important and I want to celebrate all of your successes with you!”

♥ Refrain from using the phrase, "That's not fair" and replace it with something like, "This must be God's plan" or "We will be happy and press forward anyway."

♥ Memorize scripture together. Make it easy. Don't complicate it or make it too challenging. Write it in a prominent place in your home and then refer back to if often throughout the week. Select verses that are appropriate for the season of life you and your family are in.

♥ Remind your kids AND yourself that it's okay to fail. And when you do lose at something... turn right around and congratulate the others who are successful. Nothing says selfLESSness quite like learning to shine through the disappointing moments of life.

♥ Say please and thank you as often as you can. Good manners begin in the home and modeling this to our children is the best thing we can do if we want them to love like Jesus. Go out of your way to thank them for a job well done (even if it's not done the way you would have liked). Make sure to say please before even the simple requests (like “Please remember to brush your teeth” and “Please remember that tomorrow is trash day.”) You will be surprised at how this little, seemingly small habit change in your house will make a world of difference!

Finding JOY in the JOurneY,