April Motl Christian Blog and Commentary

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Guarding the Heart of Your Home

  • April Motl

    April Motlis a pastor’s wife, homeschool mom, and women’s ministry director. When she’s not waist-deep in the joys and jobs of motherhood, being a wife, and serving at church, she writes and teaches…

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  • Published Sep 15, 2016

Scripture tells us as individuals, “Above all else, guard your heart because from it spring the issues of life” Proverbs 4:23.

There’s a general principle that if we are supposed to do something individually, then it’s a good thing to do jointly, as a married couple or family.

As times change and our family grows, there is one thing I keep coming back to in my prayer life. I feel the Lord impressing on my heart a truth found in the book of Nehemiah: Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked (Nehemiah 4:17-18 NIV).

We are builders and soldiers. Through our lives God builds His church, our families, our testimonies. While we labor at the building project, we can’t get distracted from our post as soldiers and guards.

[pullquote width="300" float="right"]We are builders and soldiers. And our family depends on us to carry out both tasks diligently.[/pullquote]

I don’t multi-task as well as they say women ought to. I prefer to do one thing at a time. Myfocus on building distracts me from guarding, and visa-versa. I am slowly learning the skill of building with one hand while I wield a spiritual sword in my other hand.

This series will go through five basic areas we can be diligent to guard in our family life. In our personal experience, when we practice careful attention to these areas, we see the blessing and fruit of this purposeful consideration. And when we don’t guard these areas of our family, we see the fruit of it as well! So here’s five points we are going to discuss in the coming series:

  1. Guard your eyes
  2. Guard your emotions
  3. Guard your mouth
  4. Guard your resources
  5. Guard your gratitude

We hope you will come back next week for the first installment of Guarding the Heart of Your Home!