Image credit: photozi / 123RF Stock Photo

In thinking about our “resolutions” for this year, my hubby and I are in agreement that we need to turn our focus toward our little family.  We know that our house is completely lost without a firm foundation.  So we want to challenge ourselves to go deeper into the application of the Word to our lives.

Over the years, we have learned the necessity of living intentionally. Days can melt into weeks, months and years…we look behind and can see missed opportunities.  We need a plan for our lives that keep an eye on eternal things that moths and rust do not destroy (Matthew 6:20).

How many of us struggle to make things right in our families and in our lives?  Sometimes events, and relationships, and our own bodies can work against us.  When we view our lives through the lens of God’s Word, we see that we can trust Him to make things right. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6).

So one of the new directions we will take in our family is really an old one.  We plan to to do some work on our “house”, some renovating.  We will work together in The Family Workshop, this gift that God has given to me, and that I am trying to unpack and share here, and in a book that I am writing.  You can read a bit more about the birth of the idea here.  But this idea, this plan for the family and for our own spiritual growth, is older than any of us:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates (Deut 6:4-9).

But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children’s children (Psalm 102:17).

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it (Proverbs 22:6).

Please keep in mind, any principles that work for the family also work for the individual.  Please stay with me even if you do not have any children, or if you do not have any at home.  We will make the foundation of this study, and of our home, the Word of God, which has power for the family, as well as the individual.  For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword,it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Heb 4:12).

Please pray with me about this as I am try to (1) be concise and informative (and at least slightly entertaining from time to time) and (2) find a good schedule to follow in posting about this and other things this year…plus keep up with the laundry, cooking, dishes, homeschooling… 😉