Chapter 5 Application:

In This House

Hey Mama, Do you ever feel like you have entered this crazy cycle of parenting in which your kids disobey, you yell, they cry, you cry then rinse and repeat? This creates an environment nobody wants to be in and makes your home anything but a sanctuary for your family.

There is a way to restore your home to a place of peace, comfort and encouragement. Your sanctuary

An Excerpt from Chapter 5: 

      "Have you ever found yourself in a season of parenting in which the behavior your child is demonstrating is more like a wildebeest than the sweet angel baby you birthed? Have you ever entered the crazy zone where your day consists of yelling at your kids, crying to yourself about losing your cool, apologizing to them for losing said cool, losing all credibility because of the apology, and then yelling again when they repeatedly disobey? Or are you familiar with this thought, “I cannot wait to go back to work,” after a long weekend home? Feeling this way about your home life, like it’s a place you just can’t wait to escape, is the type of feeling that rattles a soul longing for peace. Arguing with our kids to cooperate and obey and raising our voices in frustration are guaranteed to heap on the mom guilt we have been working so hard to shred."

Making your Home a Sanctuary

Chapter 5 talks about parenting. It calls out the embarrassing moments where I chose to take the easy way, let sin run rampant in the lives of my kids until I would snap. The yelling wouldn't fix the problem, it would put a bandaid on it until the next time. I became the mom who yelled and that was not the picture of myself I wanted for my girls. There were a few pivotal moments in our parenting that I share in detail in the pages of Chapter 5. The underlying theme of these tactics was a hope for finding sanctuary in our home and reseting the tone. As a working mom with other influencers and caretakers in the mix, we need to be particularly dialed in and present with the time we get with them. We need to strike a balance between discipline and love so that the pieces they get of us are not just the angry ones. 

In This House… Your home is your sanctuary, it is your escape from your job, your busy schedule of activities and the crazy world we live in. Your home is the place you can be yourself, find rest for your soul, and build your family. This is not just about the physical house, this is about the people in it.

Use the guide below to begin to define for yourself what your house looks like, then share this with your people. Tell them why you believe these attributes should define you and engage them to commit to this type of living, with a soul set on fire.

Sometimes it's hard to think about these things on the spot, so here is my example to get your started.

Our Space:

I need my home to be as free from chaos as possible. I set a nightly tone of relaxation by cooking dinner to the soundtrack of Christian music flooding the room from our Alexa, the smell of French Lavendar Cade fragrance permeates the air from my favorite Volupsa candle. I have shed the skin of my professional attire in exchange for my favorite Lulu Lemon Align pants and a flowing cardigan I bought on clearance at Kohls that is a weave of brown and cream thread with holes in the arms as evidence of all of the wear. I am barefoot and my hair is pulled back, and all jewelry but my wedding rings are removed. For the first time all day, I feel like I can breathe.

This is my space, this is my domain and I am finally at home.

Our Family, In This House:

We do: forgiveness, mercy, second chances, third chances, hugs, snuggles, kisses, dinners around our kitchen table, prayer, sacrifice, service, sing loud, dance big, dream, love and laugh so much.

We do not: Hold grudges, blame others, rely on our own strength, gossip, disrespect with our words or actions, discriminate, give up, or harm others.

Now its your turn:

How can you make your space your sanctuary so coming home feels like rest for your soul?

Your Space:

What attributes can you define for your family that represents the guiding principles of who you want to be and how you want to live?

• Sound: 
• Sight:
• Smell:

Your Family:

In this house, we do: ______________________________________________________ In this house,

we do not: _________________________________________________________________________

Now write it down and post it somewhere so you have a daily reminder of the commitment to make your home the sanctuary God intends it to be. 

"There is no better test to practice what you preach than in the walls of your own home. As Spider Man said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” You are entrusted in a position of power the moment your children enter the world. You are their protector, their caretaker and their provider. There is immense responsibility in this calling because we are now accountable to these tiny humans looking to us to show them what is right. We need to live out the truth that God is a god of grace and His mercies are new every morning for you and I. It’s not enough to just show our kids grace, we need to explain it to them in a way that their little hearts can comprehend." This One's For the Working Mama, Chapter 5