Category Archives: Family

Change the Atmosphere in Your Home?

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I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.” Psalm 69:30

Did you know that when you have a thankful heart the atmosphere of your home will change?  Try it, and see how the Lord will transform your home into a peaceful habitation.

When you start offering Thanksgiving and Praise, you will immediately find that it only takes one person giving thanks and soon the whole house will be full of thanksgiving.   The following verses from the Old Testament gives an account of how the glory of the Lord filled the house when they praised and thanked Him.

“And the Levites who were the singers, all those of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, stood at the east end of the altar, clothed in white linen, having cymbals, stringed instruments and harps, and with them one hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets– indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound, to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying: “For He is good, for His mercy endures forever, “that the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.” 2 Chronicles 5:12-14

Share Thanks in your home today, and watch how the Lord will fill your house.

“Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence.”    Psalms 140:1

Leaving the Little House

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“God sent forth His son… to redeem them that were under the law, that they might receive the adoption of sons. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 4:4, 5, 7)

So how do you get out of the little house?  How do you lay aside the lies you have believed that keep you in the past?  You start with the words that bound you up or tore you down instead of building you up.  You will feel like a child as long as you stay bound by the words that were spoken when you were a child. (Read I Corinthians 13:11)

I am a parent of three children, and I know I have said hurtful things to my children; I have asked for their forgiveness many times.  Like clearing a garden of weeds, forgiveness removes the words from their minds.  I believe parents should check their children’s gardens daily just to see if any lies have been planted.  Many times parents do not even realize how the things they say affect their children. A parent can say one thing and a child hear something entirely different.  I am not blaming parents in this exercise; my goal is to uproot the lies and heal the hurts.

Allow your Father God to uproot every lie that you have believed and plant His Word of Truth. Find scriptures that tell you of your Heavenly Father’s love for you.  His love is the river that John saw in Revelations 21: “There is a river that flows from the throne of God.”

Who Are You?

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Who are youYou may look to your place of birth and the family you grew up in to find out who you are.  Whether you were born into a rich home, or born into poverty, it doesn’t really matter. Your family background does not define who you are. Your family background is simply the ground in which you were planted. This is why we are referred to as “Oaks of Righteousness” in Isaiah 61. Now, who are you?

As a little girl, I would go to visit my grandfather every summer.  He lived in a big beautiful home in the mountains, a stately mansion with two boxwood trees as an archway you passed through at the entrance. As our car traveled up the winding road I felt my excitement rising.  I felt like I was going to see the most important man, a statesman, a King.  My grandfather was that impressive to me.  He was very wise, kind, and I admired him and loved to visit with him.  He enjoyed having company, and if he knew we were coming, he would stand on the porch watching for us to arrive.  A visit with him in his big, white, stately house made me feel like I was somebody special.  If he was important, then I must be somebody important too.

A number of years ago I traveled up the same winding road, but this time everything was different.  My grandfather was gone and the excitement of seeing him standing on the porch was no longer felt.  It had been almost ten years since I had seen the old home and walked up the steps of the big house where he lived.  The same road that, as a child seemed to go on forever, was actually just a little “one lane” gravel road.  As the house came into view, I realized it was also different than what I remembered.  What a shock!  The big mansion on the mountain was so little; just a farm house sitting on the side of a hill.

This experience began a journey for me that I now titled: “The Journey From the Little House to the Big House”.  It is a teaching on how we travel from our family of origin to find who we really are.  I began this journey that day, searching for my true identity, worth, and purpose in life.  If my grandfather wasn’t really a statesman living in a mansion, then who was I?  If he was just a farmer in a little farmhouse, as his granddaughter, who am I?

Even within the same family, each person must discover their true identity apart from their family.  Our true identity is not earthly it is heavenly.  We were God’s plan in the first place.  God created each of us differently, as a unique expression of his handiwork.  Our life is a beautiful, hand woven tapestry with thousands of stitches all carefully placed in a design.

Early in life, our tapestry is a lot of different colored threads.  However, as time goes on and we lay our life into the Father’s hands, He gently weaves the threads of our life together and a beautiful tapestry is revealed.  Each tapestry God weaves is a “one of a kind” and He has a different purpose in mind for each unique design.  When you finally find out who God says you are, you are a tapestry to be used in His house. God’s house, His kingdom on earth; is the “Big House.” It is a dwel ling place of peace, as you embrace and live in who He says you are. He loves what He creates; He has a plan and purpose for each unique creation.

For me, those wonderful days at my grandfather’s house planted a desire in me to find the “Big House”. I have found it, and it is grand. Now I know I am somebody special, because I know who He says I am.

Hold-on To Your Gifts

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GiftsCelebrate God’s gifts everyday and you will always have them.

God’s gift, Jesus Christ was the greatest gift that was ever given.  If you were living during the special time in history and observed the humble birth of our Lord, would you have overlooked this wonderful gift?

Think about it – the only ones recorded who recognized, and cherished the gift were Mary, Joseph, the wise men, and the shepherds.  But, there were many people living in that day who passed right by and never recognized Jesus as a gift.

Look all around you.  Are you overlooking some of God’s precious gifts?  Are you celebrating and thanking Him for your children, your husband, or your wife and others in your family?  Let us not get so busy that we pass right by a gift and fail to thank God.

Those we fail to celebrate we begin to just tolerate and those we just tolerate soon fade away.  You must hold on to the gifts God has given you by being thankful for them.  Those we are thankful for – we will cherish and hold them carefully in our heart.

Pray this prayer: “Lord, open my eyes so I can see Your gifts all around me.”

What is Perfect Love?

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“Perfect love casts out all fear, for fear hath torment. And he that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” 1 John 4:18

Perfect LoveWe are born with a need for love and fear is waiting at the door when we don’t receive it.  The first time we are touched and held as an infant, the need for love is met, but only for a moment.  As an infant, the ability to hold on to love has not been established.  The ability to hold on when someone says they are holding you is what we call “trust”.

Just as a baby will continue to cry until he/she learns how to trust, we as adults will continue to cry and complain until we mature and learn to trust God completely.

We first learn to trust through loving, nurturing parents.  We learn that we can trust them to return, even when they are away for a day.  Once trust has been established, they can be away for longer periods of time and we still feel secure and loved.  Their continual flow of love keeps our hearts soft.  A lack of love due to neglect, rejection or abuse is painful and causes emotions to shut down, so the heart begins to harden.

Each time pain is felt, a stone is formed in the heart.  After a period of time, the stones form a wall around the heart for protection against further pain.  A person with a stony heart has a difficult time receiving love from God or others.  The very thing that is needed is blocked out.

We all have areas of our heart that are stony due to the fact that we all have been hurt when love did not flow properly from our parents.  They could only give what they received from their parents.  You cannot drink water from an empty cup.

Women, did you have long periods of time when your father wasn’t in your life?  You may have built a wall around your heart making it difficult to trust and receive love from your husband.  Men, did you have a long period of time when you were not receiving nurturing from your mother?  You may experience difficulty trusting and receiving love from your wife.

Ask God for His perfect love to fill you; for God is the only one who has perfect love, (I John 4:18).

Imperfect love hurts; perfect love heals.

Written by Denise Boggs.