Building your House: Seeking your Spiritual Gifts

I have a confession to make: I am not a perfect wife. And, everyone says “well, duh?” I will tell you what though, some days I try so hard to be a great help meet and fail in major ways. I work to have the entire house clean, have a quiet time, exercise, play with our son, finish laundry, have a wonderful meal cooked, and be singing and smiling when my husband walks in the door. That does not happen. Exhaustion happens, unexpected delays happen, I just don’t feel like it or if you are a mother (or pet owner) you know what happens when something is cleaned - the child (or pet) follows every clean room to make it messy again. If this is not you on at least one day, then tell me how you do it, please!

Today, I came across a verse that just inspired me to really dig in, and hopefully I can and you can help me! Proverbs 14:1 reads, “The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down.” It made me see first, that I want to be a wise woman, and secondly, I want to be a woman that builds her house, not tears it down. We all see women tear their family’s down lately, and a lot of women tear down or shut down their husbands. When at Home posted a wonderful blog titled “Let Your Husband Love You,” which I believe we often do, if you are a stay at home mom or not! After a long day, with or without children, I think everyone is at least a little tired and we tend to push those closest to us away because it’s easier. I don’t want to repeat what she said, so you can go check that out.

As wives or mothers, whether staying at home or working outside the home, we have unique opportunities and skills to offer our families. In neglecting our God-given talents and skills, our lives, our husbands, our children - our homes - miss out on the “building” we can do. So, I encourage you to do these things with me:

• Read up on the spiritual gifts in the bible (1 Corinthians 12:1-11, Romans 12:6-8).

• Identify your spiritual gifts. There are online programs that offer tests and evaluations to help you, if you are like me, and struggle to see them. Ask a friend or two what they see to be your talents and gifts. Try to identify 1-3 areas in which you are successful. 

• Elmertowns Spiritual Gifts Assessment

• Lifeway PDF File

• Try to identify practical ways in your home you do or can “build” your home with your skills and gifts, and please, please, please share them with me. If you are uncomfortable posting them as a comment, you can join my facebook page, message me via the facebook page, or e-mail me. 

Tomorrow, or later this evening, I am going to try to share my evaluation(s), and maybe we can build on this topic of “building our homes.”