Have you ever stopped to consider the brick and mortar of the home? What builds a family to last through generations? We know engineers use specifics and design to ensure that concrete buildings withstand the test of time, tornados, and troubles but what’s the requirements for a home to stand through the storms of life? These are the questions I’ve been pondering as I pray for my family.
I do a lot of praying for my family, but always feel like I should be praying more. Praying reminds me that this home is not built by my hands, but by God’s hand alone. There are times when my prayers are about the daily challenges and struggles, but most often I am asking God what our family will look like in three generations, five generations, or more.
I’m often wondering what the future holds.
Will anyone know my name five generations from now?
What trials they will have to face?
How much mercy and goodness will follow them?
It’s not my name that I want generations from now to know; it’s my God that I want them to know. God has done incredible and magnificent things in my life. I often consider my choices based off of how this might look if it’s spoken of when I’m gone. It’s my desire to live intentionally today so that I can leave a crumb trail of God’s mercy behind me, so generations yet to be born can benefit from the truth, “His mercy endureth forever.”
I don’t desire for any grandbabies or great-grandbabies to have my name, but I beg God they will have His engraved on their hearts. I’ve always told the children as they grew, “Go love God more than I do. Be a better parent, a better wife, a better friend.” I don’t want them to be the same or less.
I want the brick and mortar of our family to grow stronger and stronger with each generation.
The brick and mortar of the Home
Layer upon layer each generation builds the family home.
Faith, Love, Patience, Long-suffering, Sacrifice, Hope, Kindness, Gentleness, Forgiveness, Repentance, Hard-work, and the list could go on and on.
Imagine each of these characteristics as bricks and God’s Spirit as the mortar that holds all our feeble attempts together. Consider how marriage is the second foundational layer of the home (the first foundation layer being each relationship with Christ).
The foundation in our family contains some crumbling bricks, unset mortar, and unsecured shallow foundations. I guess we are no different than anyone else.
I am often reminded of the verse found in Proverbs.
Proverbs: 14:1, “Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.”
It’s foolish for us to think that our thoughts, words, or actions are neutral. I’ve had this conversation with many women, “Is what I eat for breakfast really that important?” Well, yes. It feeds your body, which fuels you for the day.
God often reveals the subtle ways I’ve ripped my home apart.
There have been times my hands were guilty of destroying because they were idle, and other times they killed because they were too busy. There have been times I allowed my words to break the hearts of those who listened, and times I failed in remaining silent.
No matter what the situation in front of us, we are wise when we understand the gravity of our choices and how we can use them to propel ourselves, our marriages, and our homes forward.
We build a home, brick upon brick, layer upon layer, and precept upon precept.
Three steps to a proven building plan:
- Check the foundation of your home first by checking the depth of your relationship with Christ.
- Evaluate your marriage and ensure that you are joint heirs together in the grace of life. If not, pray for your spouse. Be an example of God’s love and watch and wait with anticipation at all that God can do.
- Consider your parenting. It’s not your job to show your children a perfect parent. No. You must teach them how to live as forgiven Sinners.
Friends, there will be trials in life and plain old ugly sin that will come in and tear down what’s been built. None of us are escaping this life without trials. So let’s be intentional to respond to them with grace and courage that only comes from Christ.
Homes that thrive aren’t homes that escaped the trials or had no troubles. They aren’t the homes where people made all the right choices. No, homes that thrive are homes that God blessed through humble sinners who did their best.
Let our homes be a testimony on the greatness of God not boasting on us.
With much love,
Mrs. Joseph Wood
