The Christ-Centered Home

With the celebration of Mother's Day yesterday, it's natural for mothers to enter this new week wondering where to go next. With cards and flowers, breakfasts in bed and little homemade gifts, our hearts are renewed to continue strong in our mothering journeys. And yet, we desire to be just a little bit better; we long to make a greater difference in our children's lives. We fully realize our role as homemakers is to be the heart of the home and create an atmosphere of love, peace, and refuge for our families. And yet, does it ever feel a bit daunting when we consider just how to accomplish this?

May I suggest a little book that might help?

"The Christ-Centered Home" by Emily Belle Freeman


I have dearly loved every book by Emily Freeman, but this one is my new favorite. With her gift of weaving stories and ideas into practical life lessons, Emily invites us on a 12-month journey to center our homes on our Savior, Jesus Christ.

In addition to inspirational stories and scriptures, each chapter includes journal questions for introspection and a lesson to teach our families (complete with a conversation, a connection activity, and a celebration treat to make together).

This book came at just the right time for me - in this transition phase of renting a little home while building our farmhouse. I've been searching for a way to unite my family and provide some sort of stability for them in this bit of upheaval. My answer is clear - I must create a Christ-centered home. Because it is only through Him that we will find the peace and stability we all seek in this ever-changing world with its continual trials. As I've taken the time to read, my cup has been filled with joy and resolve to reclaim my position as homemaker and home-changer. I hope that throughout this year, my family will feel a noticeable shift in the atmosphere of our home and by next Mother's Day, our hearts will be knit together in Christ.

Perhaps one of my favorite quotes from the book is this:


This is how I feel every. single. day. I feel to rejoice with all my heart for all of the ordinary and spectacular miracles He grants me each day. The tender mercies never stop raining down upon me, and the more I notice them, the more I find. Heaven has not forgotten me and heaven has not forgotten you. I hope that with the start of this new week you will feel how very much your Heavenly Father loves you and your family. He wants you to succeed and receive all the glorious blessings He has prepared for you. And if you seek for His grace, you will surely find it.

With love for all of you,

Your friend,
Jamie

My Top 10 Favorite Books!

As you can see, I'm still learning about periscope and Youtube and such, so my thumbnail on the video is sideways...but the video is upright so at least I figured that much out! I hope you enjoy looking into some of my favorite nonfiction/inspirational books. The links are below the video.

Shelter for the Spirit: Create Your Own Haven in a Hectic World
10 Mindful Minutes
The Child Whisperer: The Ultimate Handbook for Raising Happy, Successful, and Cooperative Children
essentialism
Desperate: Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breathe
the Water Secret
Paradise in Plain Sight
Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life
A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live
Simply Tuesday: Small Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World

Up Next on my Reading List:
Becoming His: A Daily Journey Toward Discipleship
The Fringe Hours: Making Time for You
All Rain, No Mud: The Secret to Happiness in a Stormy World
Longing for Paris
More to Your Story
Beginning of Better Days
Pursue the Intentional Life
Finding Spiritual Whitespace
The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas

Simply Tuesday.

It's actually Friday, but my heart is nudging me to post today about a special book, "Simply Tuesday," by Emily P. Freeman.

When I was asked to be part of Emily's launch team, I was thrilled (and that may be an understatement). But actually reading the book and soaking in the words of this poetic author who I have come to love (ever since "A Million Little Ways,") exceeded my expectations a hundredfold. Through the chapters in this book, Emily met me in my smallness and became the friend I've always wanted to have. I relished the time I set aside each day to "sit on the bench with Emily" and have a heart-to-heart chat. She had all the answers my heart had been seeking.

Here are just a couple of my favorite quotations:

 

There are just too many passages from this book to ever write an adequate review--my highlighted pages attest to this fact. But perhaps I can record a few of the metaphors and lessons that helped my soul grow:

• I learned how to build a bench--a small place to influence those I love.
• I found greater meaning in the word "small" and how beautiful a companion it can be in the Kingdom of God. 
• I gained new perspective into how gates and cul-de-sacs play into the places we build our homes and lives and found the "home" within me as well as the cul-de-sac where I live.
• I grasped the importance of becoming childlike and just how I can do that as wife and a mother and daughter to my Heavenly Father.
• I became more trusting of the Lord and the wondrous work He is creating through me.
• I learned how to recognize the difficult situations in my life as invitations from the Father to sit with Him in the stillness and listen to the lesson He is trying to teach me.
• I was taught how to invite my Savior into my footnote interactions so they don't escalate into headlines.
• I learned how ordinary places can become sanctuaries, how we can find friends in the pages of God's word, and how I can come unto Him.
• Through reading how Emily comforts herself with scripture passages, I was inspired to treasure up the words of God like a comforter, like medicine, like a soothing cup of cocoa. Then take them out and fill up my soul right when I need them.
• I was reminded that Christ is always the way and learned how to invite Him into every moment of my life.
• I learned how to surrender myself to His agenda, trusting that He always prepares good things.
• And most of all, I realized that it's okay that I am just a small and simple girl who is called to sing in the stairwell and sit with a few on a bench.

Perhaps I can conclude with one of my very favorite passages from "Simply Tuesday:"

"Remember, Jesus never tells children to grow up. The answer to embarrassment, disregard, criticisms, and a thousand other flippant reminders throughout our day that we are not what we wish we were, the answer is not what we grown-ups tend to do--build, protect, figure a way to validate ourselves. The answer is not to convince others of our worth.

"The answer is to accept the invitation of Jesus to be like little children and come to him because he knows on the inside we already are. He invites us not to stoop or to become less than what we are, but to finally take on the truest shape of ourselves: a small and dependent child of God.

"When we let ourselves become who we already are, we allow our souls to be a spacious foundation for the building of the kingdom of God.  For that, we don't need a stage, a platform, a position, a title, recognition, reputation, or validation. It's simply Tuesday and we're simply children, sitting on benches, low to the ground."

If you decide to pick up this book, your heart will thank you. Emily's words are comforting, encouraging, and enlightening. I'm always sad when a book ends, because it's like I'm losing a friend, but as Emily reminds me:

"When we sit, we may realize that an ending doesn't have to mean the end. Maybe it simply means it's time to begin again."

{To pre-order Emily's book click here. Bonus: if you order now, you can get a free conversation guide to go along with your book.}

xoxo,
Jamie