It Starts at Home

"What a man is at home, that he is, and though he be a saint abroad, if he be a devil at home, you may depend upon it that the last is his real character." Charles Spurgeon

Home should be the best place. The place where you belong, where you are surrounded by those you love. The place where you are accepted and loved.  Home contains the people that mean the most to you. So how do you behave there?

The people who were given you by God live in these walls. You create the atmosphere. You are the breath and life and spirit of the home.  Your behavior in your home matters. Relationships matter. All of the "things" that you do can be done by anyone except for filling relationship roles. No one else can be a wife to your husband or a mother to your children.

Think of how you want people to perceive you. Do you want to be warm? Loving? Patient? Thoughtful? Creative? Do you only try to act that way in public?  If you aren't those things at home then you aren't those things at all. You're a pretender. Instead be concerned about what your family thinks of you. 

Who you are at home is who you really are. 

You are that person that gets woken up at three in the morning.  You are that person when your husband calls and says he has to work late. You are that person who is training a persistent toddler.

Stop worrying about your public persona. Start thinking about who you are in your home.

-How do you spend your time? Are you frittering away your time on social media or television instead of raising your children?
-How do you work? Do you work with the diligence and creativity that you shows that your work matters to God?  Are you using your talents for the benefit of your family or do you save them for others?
-What words do you speak? What tone do you speak them in? Francie Taylor says, "Anything worth being said can be said in the right tone."

Be who you are supposed to be at home and you will be who you need to be in public. 

And it will be real. It will be who you really are. 

God wants us to be real. For our lives to really measure up to His Word. 

It starts at home.