God’s Blessings in the Home:
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved,
I was talking to a friend recently about an article she read that encouraged Christians to “do it for Jesus”. The article explained that everything we do in life we are called do with our faith in mind, as a way of sharing the good news of God’s love with the world.
When I became a single parent, I found myself creating new home for myself and my daughter. We had to physically move to a new apartment, and in doing so I got so caught up in packing (and later unpacking), buying new dishes, furniture, appliances, etc., that I forgot that we were also going to be building a new culture together.
Moving out of my marriage, and taking my daughter with me meant that everything was going to be changing, not just our address.
Once we started to settle into our new home, I finally started to see the importance of building that new culture, and that in order to be able to build this new life, I needed to keep my faith strong, as it was challenged and sometimes pushed to the limits of endurance. However, the harder things became as we adjusted to our new lives the more it became clear that we needed to keep faith in Christ and in God’s love as a part of that new culture, to make use of regular prayer, meditation, and reading of the scriptures for me and Bible stories for my daughter. It would have been easy to let all that go in light of how busy I had become, but it was precisely due to that stress that keeping the faith was so important!
A big part of keeping the faith were the people in my life, who gave us help and support (whether we asked for it or not), from the friends who helped us make that difficult move out of the old apartment, to the parents (single and otherwise) who gave me advice on parenting.
Through the help of these people who shared God’s love with me and my daughter, I was reminded that we do not build our homes alone, but with the help of God and of those around us.
Let us Pray:
God, help us and guide us as we seek to build and re-build homes for ourselves and our families. Help to give us faith and patience, and to learn from the wisdom of others. Thank you for giving us homes, families, and support, and thank you for being with us at times when it may seem as if one of these things has failed us, reminding us that we are never separated from your love.
Amen
Sparks of Happiness: Reflections for Single Parents 