Encouragement from Scripture: How to Have a Healthy Home

I read this excerpt from Paul Chappell's Daily in the Word Devotional this morning and found it to be very encouraging. I hope this is also encouraging for you as well!

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"Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear."

1 Peter 3:1-2

As Peter wrote to the first century Christians in Asia Minor, the world around them was ruthlessly anti-Christian. Peter showed them that God wanted the Christians to find solace within their families. A family is to be a place where you feel loved and accepted for who you are. God meant for the family to be a place of nurture and growth, but all too often today's families are filled with anger and fighting.

One way to have a healthy home is to have a heart of submission. Ephesians 5:21 says, "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." We cannot expect to automatically submit to each other and to authority if we are not submitted first of all to God. When we submit to God's authority and leading in our lives, it will be easier to submit to those around us.

We must also have a heart of love for those in our family. Love has been taken out of context by today's world. Love is not a feeling; it is not a knot in the stomach or a racing of the pulse. Love is a choice of conduct. You must choose to love those in your family no matter what shortcomings they may have. Many people reach out for love; and if they do not get love from their family, they will look to other places for it.

1 John 3:18 says, "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." It is not just enough to say that you love those in your family, but you must also show them. If I went home every day and told my wife that I loved her but never personally spent time with her, don't you think she would have some questions as to whether I really loved her or not? But if I spent time with her, bought her stuff, and did nice things for her, I don't think she would have any question!

If we hope to have a healthy home, we must remember to first learn to submit to each other. Prefer others and think of the benefit of others, not yourself. Then we must make the conscious choice to love those in our family. God knowingly placed them in your family for a reason! What changes need to be made in your family to help your home become a healthy home? Who do you need to submit to? Who do you need to show your love to more? Ask God to help you restore your relationships with your family and to have a healthy home.