Season's of a Mother's Heart: Building your House

This is week four of my online book club!  If you are a little behind at reading my blog, I am reading Season's of a Mother's Heart by Sally Clarkson. 

Chapter 4:  Building Your House

The wise women builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down. 

~~Proverbs 14:1~~

For those of you who might be confused...this verse is not talking about physically building a house with a hammer and nails. 

Start building with a good plan.

Think about if you were starting to build a new house.  How far would you get by just winging it, without plans?  Probably not very far.  You might be able to put something together, but will it last during the first storm?  Will it last when kids are running around?  Will it last even one day?

Mrs. Clarkson gave some good reminders on where families may tend to go if they don't start with a solid plan.  If you want your children to become godly adults, you must start planning now, while they are still young.  

Begin to define your vision for your children.  How can you help them develop character?  How will I instruct them in biblical truth?  How will I train them in morality?  How can I inspire them with a biblical vision for life? (pg. 86)

Are you going to raise them on biblical principles or just wing it and let them decide when they are older?  

If your plan is based on biblical principles, you won't be easily swayed by conflicting voices that will try to convince you that you are not doing it right.  The "world's" vision might be far off from the biblical principles that you have set in place to guide your family. 

Build on a strong foundation.

As we try to instill the foundation on which we want our children to grow, how are our kids going mature based on biblical principles if we aren't walking with the Lord?  We can not force our children to become mature, but we can instill dependence on God's word, living by faith, walking in the Spirit, grace and freedom.  We can pour these things into their lives to help build a strong foundation.

Count the cost to build.

Thinking back to the question I posed earlier...would you build a house without a plan?  Would you build a house first without figuring out the cost to build it?  Is your family worth building and instilling a solid biblical principle?  or is it worth just letting the world raise your kids and see how things go?  

When Sean and I decided years ago that I was going to stay home and home school our kids...we had to weigh what "cost" that would be to our family.  Not necessarily financially...even though we were going to only have one salary coming in, but we had to weigh the toll it would take on me with the task it would take to direct their education, being present every day, sometimes without a break for weeks, and being the only ones in charge of their discipline, since we weren't sending them to a school.  

That is all I have for chapter 4.  There is a lot more that I could write about...but maybe you should pick up the book and read it for yourself:)  Sorry about my horrible writing skills...as you can probably see I am not a very good writer...but as I am teaching my first grader the proper way to write, I am confident my writing skills will improve one of these days:)

On Friday, visit my friend Erin's blog at: Home with the Boys for her summary of chapter 4...and a few other book club members!