Make Your Home a Haven

I forgot to post this on Monday.....so here we go a little late

On Monica's blog, The Homespun Heart, she has been doing a post this week on creating a Haven within our homes. I so needed this right now. I think it is so important for our homes to be havens in this world. Our children should be able to come home and feel a Christ like love emanating from our four walls. I want Christ's love to overflow within the rooms of our home and this is something I want to focus on this week. I think that this can all really begin with me. Isn't their a saying that "if mamma ain't happy, no one is?"This saying is so true! I don't think that we, as mother's, realize the influence our attitude can have on our children. When we are stressed or feeling frazzled, those emotions will rub off on them and effect them in various ways. Last week I was having one of "those" days. I put it in quotations because I know every mom out there reading this blog knows what I mean when I say one of "those" days. You know a day when no matter what you do, you feel like you are falling short. You are grumpy and feeling frustrated. Well I was very much in one of these moods last week and I could feel that it was effecting my children. I prayed for God's help to get me out of this funk I was in. I didn't want my bad morning to have a rippling affect with my family. I wanted us to have a fun day, but just didn't know where to begin. Well, I felt an urge to read my scriptures and this is what verse came to mind.

"Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest".
-Joshua 1:9

I couldn't believe how stricken I was by these words. God has commanded us to be strong and of a good courage. He hasn't asked he has commanded us. This really opened my eyes. If God was commanding me to be brave, I knew he would provide the way. God never asks us to something we can not do. He always provides a way, we just need to find the path. I am so thankful to know that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and will NEVER leave me. What a comfort this sweet scripture has brought to me this past week.

Now because I have felt strengthened because of this experience, I feel like I will be more able to work on creating a Haven for my children. Here are some things I worked on today to create a Haven within my home...

1. Refresh your spirit. I know I need to work on this more. I need to start my day with him. Today before I even made my way out of bed, I grabbed my scriptures and read a verse. This was such a great way to kick start my morning.

2. Do your morning routine. My morning routine is typically this...

get up and dressed
fed littles and try to get them dressed in between their cartoon time
do dishes
tidy up anything that was left out form the night before
do a chore or two...laundry, dusting, etc
9am-school begins

3. Take time to plan. I try to do this the night before. It makes my day so much smoother when this is already written out for me. I then have a to do list and I love to cross stuff off as I do it.


I hope you are able to be refreshed this day and find some quite moments to just be still. Happy Monday!