Making Your Home a Haven

Greetings! I pray that with this season change upon us (our Northern friends are surely in full thrust of rich colors now); it has brought about a refreshing breeze to your homes and lives. Like a breath of fresh air the Father above gives us through His word as we breathe it in daily, I hope this season will bring a renewed desire to be intentional in our living. If this is your first time visiting, be sure to leave a comment and say “hello” (or if you have visited before…leave a note to say you stopped by). My hope is that while here you will be encouraged in your calling as a wife, mother, daughter, sister…

 

Well, as a further encouragement during this lovely season, Courtney at Women Living Well is hosting an October challenge ~ Making Your Home a Haven. This challenge is broken down into weekly challenges for the month of October for intentional living as we focus on making our homes a haven.  (Monica from the homespun heart is also doing a similar challenge this week.)



As wives and mothers our days are full of Distractions, Demands and Duties…sometimes we can allow these to hinder our Delight. I intend for this challenge to help me intentionally refocus my attention onto the Lord and to pray more, live more intentionally and focus more on how my behavior and attitude can set the tone of my home.



Courtney’s first challenge for this week is to:

• Light a candle everyday in your home (well, that’s pretty simple) AND
• Every time your eye catches sight of your lit candle, to say a prayer for peace to be in your home. (This is what I would call the intentional part.)
  

  

  One in the hub of our home...the kitchen

Another near a beautiful reminder of God's grace...my quiet time candle

I did light a few candles yesterday (as well as today) and my prayer is for peace to be the tone of our home ~ peace between each other, peace with the Lord’s direction for our day and peace to take over when things may not go smoothly (with a home full of children there is always sharing and kindness with everyone putting others needs before their own usually a squabble to be had at some point … several points… during the day). As the aroma from the candles fill my home, I pray that peace will also be the unseen aroma that resides throughout it…by God’s grace and my intentional actions to aide in bringing that about.

Yesterday, we spent some time bringing out our autumn decorations and creating focal points of the rich colors this season provides. Our Creator is so giving to design us to have senses…senses to smell the fragrances of His creation, senses to tastes the fruits of each season, senses to see the beauty of His design (if we will just slow down long enough to look at it), senses to hear the sounds associated with a change in season and senses to touch that can warm our hearts.

How are you intentional in living, in such a way, to create a peaceful home? What have you found to be a way (or ways) to encourage peace and joy to be present? Your comments may be just the means used by the Lord to encourage someone today that is struggling in this area…

That peace would be evident ~

If you would like to participate in Courtney’s challenge you can click here to see the challenges for this month.

I am also linking up with Monica over at the homespun heart, doing a similar challenge titled Make Your Home a Haven each day during this week.  She has a lovely blog reflecting the beauty of her creativity and making her home a haven.