7 "P's" That Will Improve Your Home

We are involved in a series on the home at Lebanon Road, and so most of what we are doing is promoting the use of our home life to glorify God. (The picture is of our PowerPoint title slide.) We have looked at the God-ordained fact of marriage, some principles for dating, and some encouraging words for those who are single. On Sunday, Lord willing, we will look at marriage.

Since we are focused on that subject, I thought of some things for our Wednesday list that might help improve your home. To help, they all start with “P.” I hope you’ll add to the list in the comments!

1. Prayer. If you want your home to be a better place, why not pray about it and ask God’s blessing on the home. Pray specifically for good things and bad. Trust that God can help, and watch Him use your home to His glory.

2. Patience. Every home needs more patience. Husbands need patience with wives and vice versa. Parents need to be patient with maturing children, and children need to understand that parents make mistakes, too. Since we are in the same house and around each other a lot, it is easy to get on one another’s nerves about petty issues. Get over it, and have some patience.

3. Passion. No…no….no…not that! I mean that each household needs to have some emotion to it. Don’t make every day just a checklist of things to do before you go to sleep. Find something to laugh about each day. Hug one another and have lots of kisses for each other. Let your children see you cry about important things often. A family with no emotion is truly sad.

4. Pageantry. By this, I mean to have some traditions. Celebrate in special ways. Make a “big deal” out of things that may not seem all that huge. One of ours is this: when we take the kids visiting to a nursing home and we finish, we stop and get a donut on the way home. Cost? About $2. Excitement for the kids? Unchartable!

5. Positions. Fulfill your God-given role in the home. If you have children, let them know who is daddy and who is mommy. Never let them see one spouse berate the other. Let them know that they are a loved part of the family, but that they do not run the family!

6 & 7. Precepts and Punishment. Have rules, and enforce them. Children not only need rules, they actually like them. They like them even more when they know what they are and that they are not going to change. It’s not easy, but it is a very important part of a great home.

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What would you add (and, no, they don’t have to start with “P”)?