Running into an Angel Friend, Kristen and I sharing messages on our hearts, being with friends, made this a wonderful conference.
Cottage talk is one of my girls' favorite subjects. As they have grew toward independence, they would often speak of moving into their own places and building a haven for themselves and their own families. Sarah has made her row-house in Oxford where she and Thomas live, a place of beauty, interest, charm and comfort. How fun to have dreamed with her over the years and to have watched the reality of her artist touch as she built her home into a haven of life. Our talks always included their taste in architecture, decorating, colors, favorite pieces of art and furniture. To build an atmosphere and to design comfort and beauty and functionality in a home, requires forethought, skill, materials, planning and then a lot of sweat equity.
But, the home or apartment or castle that becomes home is only as secure as its foundations. If the foundation is sure, true, built well, it will hold the home in place for endless years, through all who live there, all who bring color and life and beauty in their own way.
The same is true of child nurturing--or building your home into a legacy of spiritual and emotional, educational life requires laying strong sure foundations. With planning and hard work our home becomes a place of character building, development of moral character, cultivating faith, teaching manners, modeling mature relationships, slowly building and understanding of love and how to express it and so much more. Each of these facets builds a place that can also reflect beauty, values, personality and excellence.
But the building of any kind of superior, lasting house, spiritual or real, will not happen in by merely reacting to life. This sort of house must be planned and formed and shaped with wisdom, skill and with diligence.
Today, I am announcing a summer series that I have been working on about building foundations for your own heart and soul so that you will have a grid from which you plan in building the foundations of your own children's lives and hearts. We will follow the chapters in our newly revised and reedited book, the 10 Gifts of Heart. You can get your copy from Amazon in the next week or so to use for the summer to take notes, to read and to be inspired about shaping areas in your home and children's lives that will help build them into strong adults when they exit your home. (It is in the process of being accepted into Create Space, a print on demand function of Amazon.)
I do pray for all of you who read here--that you will find God to lift your burden--that you will find friends to meet with to encourage you along this important path and that you will understand how very much your dedication to raising your children for His pleasure and glory will matter for eternity.
I am also sharing a podcast we just recored here in Portland where I am staying for a few days. I can't wait for you to hear the story of my sweet friend who rescued Joy and me in Italy in our time of need and I did not know she was going to show up in Portland at our Mom Heart conference. What a surprise to see my friend Shauna from Italy here in the States.
You will also hear from Kristen and me. We will be doing lots of fun things this summer to give you ideas of activities to do in your home over the summer, recipes, posters, books to read and other fun ways to help the summer pass well. Hope you will like our ideas and be renewed and re-inspired this summer to build strong foundations of faith in your home.
Enjoy! I am off to tea time here in the Northwest but love hearing from you. Let me know how you enjoy our podcasts.