Passionate Homemaking

Week to week….Sunday to Sunday…friends and family will ask, how was your week? They may also ask: what did you do this past week? How often do you actu­ally remem­ber what took place this past week? I really have to think about it. Recently I have been struck by the fact that I have been living week by week with­out much thought to my doings…why else could I not remem­ber? Doesn’t this reveal a lack of pur­pose­ful­ness? Yes, I try my best to plan my day, but in the long run, am I really think­ing about how I as a wife and mother can invest pur­pose­fully in the lives of my family and others around me this week.

2 Cor. 13:5 “Examine your­selves to see if you are in the faith.”

George White­field (1714-1770) was “the best-​known evan­ge­list of the eigh­teenth cen­tury and one of the great­est itin­er­ant preach­ers in the his­tory of Protestantism.” Before he retired each night, he opened his jour­nal and probed his soul with ques­tions such as these he’d placed in the flyleaf:

Have I,

1. Been fer­vent in prayer?
2. After or before every delib­er­ate con­ver­sa­tion or action, con­sid­ered how it might tend to God’s glory?
3. After any plea­sure, imme­di­ately given thanks?
4. Planned busi­ness for the day?
5. Been simple and rec­ol­lected in everything?
6. Been meek, cheer­ful, affa­ble in every­thing I said or did?
7. Been proud, vain, unchaste, or envi­able of others?
8. Rec­ol­lected in eating and drink­ing? Thank­ful? Tem­per­ate in sleep?
9. Thought or spoken unkindly of anyone?
10. Con­fessed all sins?

You don’t have to be lim­ited to the above ques­tions. Donald Whit­ney sug­gests: “In addi­tion to your indi­vid­ual spir­i­tu­al­ity you could also ask your­self specif­i­cally about your mar­riage and family life, work, Inter­net habits, finan­cial stew­ard­ship, or any other area of life where fre­quent reminders to obe­di­ence would help.”

Wow! How inspir­ing! Here are a few ques­tions I have writ­ten in my jour­nal, spe­cific to my life. I am answer­ing each one on Monday morn­ings, as I start each week afresh, and write out ONE simple step I can take each week. Keep it simple. I want to con­tinue to grow and be pur­pose­ful in my role as wife and mother.

1. In what area did I stum­ble in sin this past week and what steps can I take to change and grow in this area this week?

Where am I lack­ing the fruit of the Spirit? This week I have been medi­at­ing on spir­i­tual pride in my life (more to come on this), and seek­ing to eval­u­ate my heart and words in a more Bib­li­cal and edi­fy­ing manner. I am so quick to be crit­i­cal and judgmental.

2. What prac­ti­cal steps can I take this week to:

a. Strengthen my rela­tion­ship with the Lord

My simple goal this week is to finish writ­ing out a few prayer cards with spe­cific areas of prayer to place in the car and in my nurs­ing chair. These cover dif­fer­ent topics with verses spe­cific to mis­sion­ar­ies, gov­ern­ment, family, etc. I hope to be more pur­pose­ful in pray by plac­ing these in places I reside the most, to assist in remind­ing me.

b. Bless my husband

I am striv­ing to be more pur­pose­ful by asking my hus­band at the begin­ning of each week: How can I serve you this week? Is there any­thing I have been doing that is dis­tract­ing or pre­vent­ing you from your work and vision? This week he answered that being that he works from home, if I leave the baby in the office with him, it is very dis­tract­ing to him. I need to guard his work time more delib­er­ately and not bring the baby in and cause him to loose focus.

c. Love my baby more effectively

I have failed in loving my baby by get­ting to con­sumed with writ­ing and read­ing on my com­puter. By God’s grace, I am lim­it­ing my time to 1 hour during her morn­ing or after­noon nap. That way when she is awake, she gets my full attention.

d. Serve others, express thank­ful­ness and/or encour­age­ment to one person each week

I want to send a note of encour­age­ment and appre­ci­a­tion to two friends this week. This gives me oppor­tu­nity to, Lord will­ing, encour­age my sis­ters in the Lord.

e. Sim­plify my life - what is one area I need to sim­plify to pro­vide more peace in our home

My goal this week is to rest more pur­pose­fully, after the chal­leng­ing events of last week.

Check out Jonathan Edwards’ inspir­ing res­o­lu­tions: Jonathan Edwards Resolutions

Con­sider how you might take a few moments on a reg­u­lar basis to probe your soul and become more pur­pose­ful for the fur­ther­ance of His kingdom!

I would love to hear of any good questions that you have used to examine yourselves!