How To Treasure God’s Design for Your Home

God’s Design: What is It?

By design, we mean that God personally directs his children by his general and special appointments of their personal circumstances. 

God appoints all of your circumstances. Yes, all of the complex circumstances! You must receive them and surrender to God in hope-filled trust, resting in his grace. 

Planning a family calendar or working up a daily schedule are acts of faith when they are done in obedient submission to God. Flexibility is welcoming unexpected changes as an instrument of God’s choice. Remember, “that without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6)! By faith, the righteousness of God is revealed in His people (Romans 1:17).

You and I don't think like God thinks (Isa. 55:8)! We don't resist sin to the point of shedding our own blood (Hebrews 12:4)! God has plans for his children, “plans to prosper them with a hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11-14). But those plans require specially designed circumstances that press His children to seek him with all of their heart. God will be found by those who seek him!

God ordains difficult circumstances because He loves you and has plans to make you (and your children) like His Son, Jesus! "For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives. If ye endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not" (Hebrews 12:6-7)? “Endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:3)!

And again, "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with [him], that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [are] not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us. ...For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, [then] do we with patience wait for [it]. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:17-18, 24-25, 28-29). 

God’s will touches every circumstance of your life; that is his plan, that is his design! If you desire to follow God’s plan for your family, you absolutely need to discern His sovereign presence in your everyday circumstances! Here are some practical points to assist you in treasuring God’s design for your family...

Do You Love the LORD your God with all your Heart? 

God has given parents the duty to bring their little ones to God (Isa. 49:1-6). It is the parents’ duty to train their children to love and trust God! Love is important!

Since your role as a parent is so crucial, your first priority must be to love God entirely! “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might” (Duet. 6:5). "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed [them] unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God" (1Cor. 2:9-10). 

Teaching children is not about your performance, it is about their  love relationship to God! God is love and He wants to bring us the help we need as His children. As a parent, you must engage in that love relationship with God. A truly Christian home is the primary place where children learn how to love God and how to trust Him with the circumstances of their lives! The only way  parents can genuinely show love towards their sinful child (rather than anger or shame) is by themselves being secure in a love-relationship with God.

Meditate on His Word Daily 

“These words which I command you this day shall be in thine heart” (Duet. 6:6). When something is in your heart, there is affection for it. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt. 6:21).  Orthodoxy shapes orthopraxy! You live out  what you believe in.

The Word of God must be a treasure in order for you to embrace and pursue its teachings (Matt. 13:44-46). Study the Bible out of the largeness of your need and  not the smallness of your ability. “If any man thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing as yet he ought to know” (1Cor. 8:2)! Brokenness will mine richer truths than arrogance! Come to God in your need, and seek God as the source to meet your need. Let your children see you call on the Lord with all of your heart!

Teach your children to do the same! All children need their Daddy's help. Teach your children to come to God by training them to Come to you. Asking earthly parents demonstrates how to come to God. We all are children in God’s family. "Daddy, I need help with math, can you help me?" Viola! — truth is taught and application absorbed. “Call on the Lord and he will show you great and mighty things that you know not” (Jeremiah 33:3)!

The Christian knows that God is the source of all that can be taught or known. When your child comes to you for advice, don't give him what you think or figure out; give him what God has revealed and taught you in the Word and in deed. 

The Word of God is the source from which we hear God. Our needs are doors through which we go out to seek God and through which God’s Word enters our heart to guide our steps.

Impress your children consistently. 

“You shall teach them diligently”, the text says. Note that the Hebrew word for diligent means to make a deep impression, such as a seal in hot wax. Teaching diligently means making a deep, lasting impression on your child. You do this when you are authentic and “talk to them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Duet. 6:7) If a parent loves God with all his heart, and has God's Word in his heart, his life will be an example of someone who hears God and orders his life accordingly in every area — yes, this is possible! 

For example, how do you create a schedule? Look at the orderliness of God’s universe. The sun comes up with regularity, the seasons return on time; therefore, if you are going to keep up with God, you’d better learn to get up when He orders the sun to rise, and go to bed when night is fallen! 

Organize instruction around your home's interests. 

Don't try to be a family that you are not. It is bondage to measure yourself against others. Your neighbor’s home looks better when you visit them than your house does as you live in it every day! Stop it! Allow your home to be free-flowing. Let it be your home. Let the unique nature of your home guide decisions about how to best meet the needs of your family. 

Make decisions that are in the best interest and function of your home. Have good reasons for the choices you make — better yet, have God's reasons! There are not many decisions that in  themselves are right or wrong. Ask: "Is this the right thing to do in this situation? Why or Why not?" Your home has spectacular things to offer because God has designed the details! Allow your home to partake of what God had ordained for your children to receive. 

In your role as parent you are a steward. Your first need is to be faith-filled before God. Your home can only give what God ordains it to give; however, you can miss out on God’s plan if you are not careful! Never forget, that you are a child of God as well, you have a Father in heaven who is watching over you also. Enjoy that special relationship of being God’s child. Let God be your Father, love Him, and pursue Him in every detail of His providential plans for your home!