Building Faith in the New Year

Inspired by the comments on the previous post, I will share some faith-building ideas, which are things I am attempting to adopt into my own world this year.

Mrs. B. has a lovely post about this aspect, here.

*While it is impossible to avoid hearing negative, doomsday reports, it is possible to keep from entertaining them.  Divert attention to Biblical solutions, yet not more religious doom and gloom replies, if you know what I mean.  

*Do not engage in fruitless complaints about things that you can do nothing about at the moment. This is an exhausting, circular discussion based on an indignant response to life. Resist the habit of thinking on the negative side of everything.

*Keep moving around and accomplishing what you need to do, and refuse to waste time worrying and talking about the state of the world. Let God take care of that.

*Don't listen to the bad news all the time. It does not mean you will not be aware of it, as it will come to your attention in other ways (friends, emails, etc) but don't deliberately tune in to the public news to immerse yourself in.  That is the bad news, and the reports are picked by the private companies which own the news stations. Much of the news is designed to demoralize people and make them desperate for changes so that they will agree to certain things just to get some relief from the worry.  The Good News is the Gospel, and the goal of every Christ-One is to use all that negative as a way to focus on that good-news message with all its solutions. Some people think we are supposed to change the world, and in a sense, it is true. We are to change it through our own households. That is something a homemaker has control over.

*Make your home, your life, your attitude and the lives around you better for you having been here.

*Go through one box of storage items, one shelf of books, one part of a closet, and one-of-something each day,. Just one extra cleaning job: One drawer in the kitchen, one shelf in the laundry room, one box of papers each day, one shelf in the kitchen, one scrap paper drawer, one sewing drawer.  

*Each week phone one person that might need some good news or something positive to think about. I phone a young friend who needs housekeeping motivation. I tell her how far along I have come in my progress of the house, even if it is is only getting fully dressed and fixing my hair.  I ask her to call me back when she is dressed.  She calls me when her front room is clean, and I call back when I have finished another task. We sometimes share what we have on our to-do list. We have enormous enjoyment from these things, and then we take pictures of before and after areas of the house.  

*Send something to someone in the mail once a month: a care package with tea party ingredients, or a card and a letter, or just anything you do not want anymore. If it is light weight, it should not be a great expense.

*Make it a goal to get in the habit of cleaning up the kitchen before you retire at night, and going through the house to straighten everything, as if you were having company in the morning. It will do great things for your mood the next day.

*Try not to hit the floor running when you first get out of bed. Get up early enough to prepare yourself and get a shower, dress up and fix up as if you were doing the most important job in the world.

*Realize it is unfair to bring children up in a home atmosphere of gloom and doom, where the negative is the automatic reaction to everything. It will breed in them a negativity that will harm their future mates and children.

*Serve tea regularly. 

*When you get in a mood slump and cannot seem to find any light in your life, go through my blogroll and read the current posts. Then go to their blogrolls and check out what blogs they like. You will most likely never read a discouraging word there. They are showing you the good side of their lives. In the old days, it was not considered "good form" to make anyone depressed by unloading all the negative thoughts and feelings on them. Consider there is a God in Heaven and a Son, the great advocate for us, and spend more time personally talking with Him.

*Listen to my playlist while cleaning the kitchen. I'm trying to eliminate the ads, but can click "skip" if any of the music has a loud ad. I've also added some really good songs that will do your heart good and help you get through your work at a good pace.

*Read the New Testament daily for positive messages to your heart. God does not want anyone to dwell on morose, unhappy things all the time.

*Suppress the habit of complaining in your home about bad things, and do what you can to correct; the rest, leave to God's will. The tendency to complain about the condition of the house, the air, the food, health, and the world, will invest itself in your mind and multiply to a legion of bad thoughts,until you can't stand your life anymore, and neither can anyone else.  For this reason it might be a good idea to limit online reading about every disease and every corruption that goes on and substitute it with intelligent study of some good literature or building knowledge on how to live your best.

*Make sure your house is in order before taking on the troubles of this world. If your mind gets too wrapped up in the fearful and the negative aspects of life, you will lose your ability to concentrate on making your home the best it can be. Take all bad news in stride, realizing that is the way it works, and that a homemaker has a chance to live above it all by creating a refuge at home. It is necessary to discuss the political issues sometimes, but keep a proper perspective of it so that instead of being drawn into despair and discouragement, you lift your family up to higher spiritual levels.

*Increase your skills in things that would benefit you, your home, your family. This is not limited to cooking and sewing, but even those two subjects have limitless learning possibilities. Try something you have not done before. It could be photography, learning how to refinish old furniture, upholstery, writing fiction or non-fiction, art of some kind, interior design and house design, or even learning to repair a washer, dryer and other household items. This kind of positive progress will make the world's bad news have less impact on your mind. Use these new interests as rewards to yourself  for daily work.

My own belief is that, like Paul, although I am a citizen of the country in which I live, I am also a citizen of a different country, with a different passport, a different ruler and different code to live by. Yes, we are here in this world, but God gives us His will to follow, so that we may endure, and have abundant life.

If you even put one of these items into practice, you will find that you see more of the ways in which God is helping you, protecting you and working in you.

Of course it is important that we know what things to avoid and what things to embrace, so naturally it is good to talk out political and religious things in the home. However I do think we have to have a proper mind-set about it and not be drawn down into the morose, defeating talk.  It is, for example, important to know what they are teaching in public schools, how to help your children avoid things harmful to their spirit and body, hype about the economy collapse (how many decades have we been endangered with that?), the over-population "threat", the lack of jobs projection, the "you can't survive on one income" fallacy, the end-of-the world predictions, and shortages on food and necessities threat.  These kinds of things are designed to keep us in a constant state of unrest, so that we cannot concentrate on being inventive, resourceful and successful, and will always be dependent on the government news.

Anyone who would like a phone call this year is welcome to email me and set up a time. ladylydiaspeaks@comcast.net   I also have a personal email update that I send out privately. If you would like to receive that, please let me know. It is just about things going on around my home and in my life, including sewing projects and hospitality events, room re-painting, and things I do not put on this blog.

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