120 - Foundations in Home
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Show Notes:
Today's episode is part two of a three part episode series, giving you a glimpse of this new audio course. Today you'll hear about my outlook on the home and how important home life is. I hope you enjoy it.
And the course is almost out! So be sure that you head to nancyray.com to get on the email list to hear more about it.
For the full episode, hit play above or read through it below.
"He has raised us up with him and seated us in the heavenly places with Him." -Ephesians 2:6.
I'm so excited to talk about our home. We live in our homes. We do life in our homes. It's so important to have an integrated life perspective on our home because our home is such an important and integral part of our lives. And yet our homes can also be the places that we find ourselves so defeated and so overwhelmed.
And so I just want to start by speaking life over you and your home and reminding you that God has put inside you everything that you need to carry out the purposes of your home in your family's life, in your husband's life and in your life. That's why I wanted to start by reading Ephesians 2:6, "He has raised us up with him and seated us in the heavenly places with Him."
Because I think that we forget that we have been given authority by Jesus, by what he purchased for us on the cross. And that authority translates to our homes. I realized this the other day, when it had been on my list to clean out this one closet for, I don't know, three or four weeks, maybe six weeks, it just kept getting pushed off.
It was a simple little closet full of winter coats, and it was summer. We didn't need the winter coats anymore, but they're everywhere. I mean, the winter coats are like exploding out of this closet. And it turned from this task that I just put on my list to do, to me thinking I'm a failure. I can't do this. Why can't I do this simple thing? Why is my plate so full? Why am I so defeated? Why can't I just freaking pick up these jackets and put them away? You know, these things that plague us in our schedules and our to-do lists because they feel like they're never ending, or they're always out of reach, can turn into this victim mentality. This "Why me?" mentality this mentality of defeat, and that is where the enemy wants us.
Instead of realizing, first of all, we can just be grateful for the fact that we have winter jackets. Second of all, that closet has nothing to do with who I am. And third of all, that God has given me the authority to take authority over the stuff in my house. Just as much as He's given me authority in a spiritual sense. And so, so I want to start there and I want to say there are so many books, podcasts, Instagram accounts, things, eBooks, Netflix shows on how to organize your home and how to have the best, most beautiful home and the most stylish home. That's not what we're talking about, right? Talking about that today.
We are talking about how you set the tone for your home, from your attitude and your heart, and that you have authority that God has given you. Those things are really the important stuff that determines the atmosphere of your home. I want to remind you, you, you get the beautiful blessing and honor and privilege to set the tone in your home and in your family. As a wife and a mom, we have a really special role.
That's very unique in the ability to do that. No matter how messy or clean, no matter how organized or cluttered or decluttered or clean or disgusting, whatever, it doesn't matter. Your home doesn't matter what I want to talk. What about is you and your heart and how you get to set the tone? How I get to set the tone in our homes,
your personality, who you are, what you like gets to shine through every piece of artwork chosen. Every photograph displayed the furniture, the food that you cook. And before, before you start going down that road, talking to yourself, saying I'm not good at one of those things where I'm not good at all of those things, or I can't decorate well,
or you should see my house, Nancy, it's a mess. Or I don't even know how to cook or I don't like to cook. Yeah. I don't enjoy Pinterest in those things. When the entire world is telling me, I should, I'm just not good enough. I just want to remind you. God made you. He formed you with all of your likes and dislikes.
He gave you your home and your family, no matter how big or how small, so that you can lead them and inspire them as he made you with every gift that he put inside you. And I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you are enough. Like everyone else always says, I am enough just as I am. You're enough.
I'm going to tell you the truth, which is God made you to be you. He put gifts inside of you. And he is so happy with how he made you and you're not going to be enough. I'm not going to be enough. We were never designed to be enough or to measure up. In fact, we all are going to constantly fall short all the time.
And the beauty of walking with the Lord is allowing him to shine through us. And when we grab on a link arms with the Lord Jesus and the holy spirit in our homes, we realize we're not enough, but he is. We're not enough, but we can walk in his love in His peace, in His authority and bring that and the beauty of that into our homes.
God has given us authority through Christ Jesus and the work that He did, not our work, but the work He did. He has raised us up with Him and seated us in the heavenly places with Him. I love what Sally Clarkson said in her book The Life-Giving Home, “Every day in each inch of space, each rhythm of time, each practice of love, we have the chance to join God in coming home and living so that we can make a home of this broken and beautiful world all over again. Love is enfleshed in the meals that we make, the rooms that we fill, the spaces in which we live and breathe and have our being. “
Notice, she didn't say that it's in how tidy our homes are or how perfect they are. It's just about the rhythms and how we show up. Most importantly, our faith and our walk with Jesus should inspire our home more than anything else. As He transforms us into who He wants us to be, as we surrender again and again to Him and to His leading, we are transformed. Our attitudes, our patience, the way that we set boundaries with our children and lead them the way that we love them and read to them and lay hands on them to pray when they're hurting the way that we pray all the time, quietly and out loud, who we are in Christ.
That is the most important thing that we can focus on when we are thinking about our homes. And when I think about what makes me feel most at home, I think about my mom. Not necessarily her home and how beautiful or perfect it is, I just think about her. She was always so good at listening at giving me words of wisdom and encouragement.
She has always been there to support me and cheer me on. And I know that not everyone has had the privilege of having a mom like mine. And I also know she's not perfect. I don't want you to think she's perfect. She wouldn't want you to think that. There are no perfect moms out there. She has her shortcomings, too. I just want to share that example to remind you that we can get so swept up with our physical home in doing so much. And I am literally raising my hand as I say this, because I'm so guilty of this.
We forget to play. We forget to stop. We forget to rest. We forget to be, we forget to slow down and we forget to be listeners. When I think of other women in my life whose homes I love to visit, you know what I'm talking about? When you go to a home and you immediately just feel like, wow, I really want my home to feel like this one day, their homes are often kept nice. They're clean, they're orderly. They're lovely, but that's not what I remember. The things that I remember about the beauty of their homes are their welcoming arms, their listening, ears, their peaceful and hospitable demeanor.
There might be a mess in the corner on a table or books scattered around, but that's not what I remember. It's the interaction that leaves the impression home or the feeling of coming home. The essence of the comfort of home is oftentimes tied to the woman in the home. What an honor, what a joy and what a privilege that is now, because home really touches on so many different areas of our lives. I'm going to focus on our physical, actual homes. I am going to get practical and talk about rhythms that we can put into place to manage our homes better. But I really want the common thread throughout all of this to be how we can spiritually take authority there and also focus on the most important relationships in our home, our marriage and our kids and our own health, because how we care for ourselves and our bodies often takes place in and around her.
I want to just stop for a second and acknowledge: We manage a lot, right? We do a lot. Whether you are working or single or married, or at home with five kids or part-time employee or newlywed, or you've been married for 50 years, whatever, we do a lot to manage our homes. And sometimes we can feel like we have it all together. And sometimes we feel overwhelmed. A lot of the time we feel overwhelmed, like it's too much, but I just want to remind you that you have a friend who is closer than a brother who is cheering you on you not doing this alone.
The Holy Spirit is with you, leading you and guiding you. And when we invite him to help in our management of our home and how we lead our homes and our families, He is so faithful to be there with us and to answer that prayer. So I want to start by reading truth over you and over me when it comes to our homes, because I do think we can feel defeated so quickly. Just like that closet that I tried to clean out for six weeks straight and never seemed like I can never get to it. And the things that pile up around us and our long to-do lists, they can quickly feel like the enemy can quickly use those things in whispered defeat to us. And I just want to say in Jesus' name, no, let's replace those thoughts with truth.
Joshua 1:9 says, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.“
1 John 5:4-5 says, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world, except the one who believes that Jesus is the son of God?”
James 4:7, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and He will flee from you.”
So I want you to take a few minutes in your workbooks to just write a fresh new vision for your home, for the space that you live in and that you create and how you want to show up there.
Just invite the Lord in once again, to be the ultimate leader of your home and ask Him to speak to you as you write so that you can write out exactly how you want your home to be.
I’m going to close with just a few more thoughts. These lessons and this audio course that I’m going to be releasing are really just an extension of my heart and my life. It’s my overall view of how I walk out my faith, how I run my home, and how I work in a lot of different seasons of my life.
I have loved doing this podcast for the past two years. When people ask me what I do and what I love doing, I just say them how much I love this medium of podcasting, it’s so fun for me. And here I am, I’m coming up on taking my first ever break from it, which is crazy. I’m excited about the break, obviously very excited to welcome baby #4 into our family, but because I’m going to be taking a break, I’m also really grateful to be able to offer this audio course to you, which in a lot of ways it’s going to be better than the podcast. It’s more comprehensive, it’s more thorough. It’s my entire outlook on all of life.
Now, whether or not this audio course is for you, whether or not you buy it, I just want to thank you for being a listener here. It really is the highest compliment when someone stops me or email s me and says that they’re a listener and they listen regularly, it means the world to me and it keeps me showing up here. So thank you. I really want you to hear me say I’m so so grateful for you.
So, keep checking nancyray.com for updates on me, my personal life, updates on me and my course, and be sure to be on my email list to be the first to know. You can always sign up at nancyray.com/emails.
Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you next time.
