The Biltmore, Asheville, North Carolina
The wise woman builds her house, the foolish woman with her own hands, tears it down. I have often said, in my conferences, that when the building of a whole family, a history, a legacy of believers who will have an impact for godliness in the world captures the imagination of a woman, she will have a work to pursue, a vision to inspire her soul, that will last for a lifetime.
A wise woman knows that to build a house for God that will last generations, she must have a detailed plan. A woman can merely build a poorly constructed condominium or shack, or she can build a large, beautiful, functional estate, so to speak. The grand estate of influence, will obviously take much more work and planning, many more years to accomplish, but will accomodate literally thousands of people for generations. It just depends on the scope of her vision.
This house building will require hours and hours of blood sweat and tears. To be built well, it requires a detailed and artistic plan, and the plan will need to be reworked and adjusted and corrected along the way. Simply put, the building of grand estate of righteousness will require her whole life and diligence and sacrifice for all of her days. And yet, so many just want it to be simple or over because they never knew or understood the scope and requirements.
Consequently, the foolish woman tears down her own home, not intentionally, most women do not mean to leave a legacy of broken children with scars of anger, lack of training and purpose. But they never knew how to build and were not willing to do what it took to build, because they were side swiped by the storm of it all.
But, let us understand, the foolish women tears down her opportunity to build, and will be held accountable by God, for what she built as he entrusted precious, eternal human beings into her hands, to shape for His kingdom and to learn His love and ways.
The problem with motherhood and the need for women to build godly estates of godly leaders in their homes, through multiple children that a woman will invest her life into, is that most women had no training, preparation or education of what it would take or how much it would cost them. Most just got married with the hope that someone would love them and take care of them and provide security and affirmation, and then babies came, and overwhelmed them. They had never been trained for the job, never seen it modeled when they grew up, never had a vision for how powerful a house (family) for God could be or how much work it would take.
So, life came along and so did the babies, and overwhelmed and sweet women who have never had the opportunity to build a vision with a plan, find themselves up to their eyeballs in details and duties and the caring of babies without the support or input, accountability or help from experienced women who have built godly legacies. The greatest job in the world, that will indeed influence what our nation becomes, as the children of now become the legacy of adults for the next generation--and yet, no time or effort has been invested to educate or prepare these precious and significant leaders, moms, how to do it. And our churches ignore this important, Biblical call, and it just fades into nothingness in the priority the focus of woman's ministries in our generation. Satan would love nothing more than for us to minimize the importance of deeply investing our time and lives into the minds, hearts, souls and training of our children, because he knows they are essential to bringing the kingdom of God to bear in their generation.
For most moms, it is like facing a tornado and storms of life or a battlefield for souls, with no skills, preparation or resources or protection or help--the tornado of the present demands and the battles just takes over.
I have also observed that sweet ones want an immediate fix for this moment right now, the present emergencies of life, instead of understanding that this is a very long term project and much care must be given to the broad range of building. Planning must not be based on the emergency and immediate need, but on the long term building and work and endurance until the project is completed.
Planning is the key to what will be built and planning requires thought and time.
Today, this week, step aside from life and check what you are building. Simplify your plan, create the essentials, the rhythms that need to be established to get the work done, cut out the unnecessary expenditures of time and energy and money that are not necessary to the overall building and be sure to plan in rest every week along the way.
After coming home from 4 days of a wonderful conference, with lots of stimulation and ideas, I am home today, reworking my own plan of what I am building and will build in the year to come, and evaluating what is necessary, what my limitations are and what I can realistically complete.
May God bless your planning and vision, for without a plan, nothing great can be built.