One piece of advice from the author that has stuck with me in my marriage now is...make your home a place of rest, a sanctuary, where your husband and children can come home and find rest no matter what the world has thrown at them during the day.
1. I realized that the peacefulness of my home is a result of some things I can do, but is mostly a result of the peacefulness of my soul. This peace comes from trusting God, and knowing that know matter what we go through God is working all things for our good. We try by God's grace to make our home a place of rest, peace and love, and by that grace, God has given us such a home. I pray we will continue to have peace in our souls by trusting God even once we have kids in the house too. Isaiah 26:3 "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you."
2. Preparing my mind and attitude so that when my husband comes home I am eagerly waiting for him, and cover him with my love. This is important, and if I'm in the house when he gets home I drop everything to run to the door and greet him with hugs and kisses. He needs this after long, hard days at work. No matter how hard my day was, I pray to God for strength to reflect God's love to my husband, especially when we are together. 1 John 4:10-11 "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."
3. I do what I can to help him with necessary things in life like finances. For me, this means keeping track of our food budget, since I do all the cooking. It helps him a lot, and if our food budget is in line we don't have to worry that we won't have enough food to eat at the end of the month.
4. I try to maintain the house so it's at least a little clean, and, at minimum, acceptable to look at. This is harder and harder as time goes on, but I realize that if I get the cleaning done earlier in the day it means more time we can spend together and with God in the evening.
5. I do what I can to serve him as much as possible when we're together. Some simple things are having dinner ready when he comes home (usually that means I need to cook something in the morning or afternoon before i go to work for a few hours), making him tea or massaging his feet, making sure he has clean shirts to wear the next day, packing lunch for him the night before or morning of, etc...
Service reflects the true heart of Christ...
Mark 10:44-45 "And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
I hope you are encouraged by this to strive to make your home a place of rest for your family. Wives and Moms have a huge influence on the peace and love in their family, probably more than they know! :)
God bless!
