One of the BIGGEST things that will make an impact in how your home is filled with love is whether or not mom and dad get along. If you’re a single parent, this applies to you, too. The focus this week on the 28 Day Challenge to Fill Your Home with Love is to make sure the foundation of our homes is as stable and strong as possible.
If you haven’t joined the 28 Day Challenge email list yet, check it out here!
As a Christian, I believe a strong foundation for our homes starts with building our homes on the ROCK. And you know I’m not talking about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, although he does seem pretty strong … lol! We’re talking about the ROCK of our salvation — Jesus. The Bible says God is love, so He is the best place to start to build a solid foundation upon which we can then fill our homes with more love!
This is the kick off to Week 2 on the challenge and I’m SUPER excited about it, so let’s jump right in!
Your Day 8 Challenge is to build a Foundation of Love!
Don’t worry! That sounds poetic and ethereal, but I have practical tips coming!
Before I share those tips, I’ll give you a little background info — my parents and in-laws both provided the best foundation of love they could. My hubby Adam and I seek to do the same with our kids.
We can start our “back story” on the island where Adam and I grew up: Puerto Rico! Like many couples, our family foundations shared some differences & some similarities:
- Both of our parents worked full time outside the home.
- We both grew up in a Christian environment
- Our families were very musical (everyone either sings or plays an instrument!)
- He went to a University of Puerto Rico public school, while I went to a private Christian school.
- Our family was in church all the time. His family valued the Christian faith, but did not enforce church attendance.
- They didn’t endure financial stress; my family went through quite a bit (but God always provided!)
Of course, like every married couple, we brought different experiences and expectations into our marriage. But we both knew that it was important to build a strong foundation of love, for our marriage and for the kids that God has blessed us with.
We got MARRIED!!! Best. Day EVER! This was in Puerto Rico in 2004!!!
How we built a foundation of love … starting as newlyweds
When we got married, Adam and I decided to focus on building our home. We cut out being involved in every. single. ministry opportunity and only chose to keep occasional prison ministry visits. That first year of marriage was AMAZING! We continued going to church regularly, but skipped on the pressure of being stretched too thin. We did not say yes to every opportunity, but prayerfully considered which ones would be best.
I think God must have led those decisions. That was the same year we dealt with a brain tumor surgery. Thankfully, we also celebrated God’s many amazing miracles thru that time!
Shortly after that miraculous healing, we prayed for direction and followed God’s call from Puerto Rico to California. A few years later, we found ourselves praying again! This time, it was about a move to Texas and we followed God’s leading to Houston. That move with a pre-schooler and a toddler was a bit more challenging. But with God as our foundation, we had peace that He’d take care of things.
Are you seeing a theme?
The foundation of love for our home has been prayer.
Adam and I have prayed for our marriage, for help through crazy times and for wisdom before making big decisions. We have prayed for our kids, praised for miracles and thanked God for so many blessings!
As you consider building the foundation of love for your home, I hope these tips help encourage you to put God first and strengthen that foundation.
This was at our church, Second Baptist, in Houston, on Easter Sunday with my hubby, our kids and my parents. Loved our matching blue outfits! <3 Read my story about how I came to know Jesus.
10 Tips to help you build a solid Foundation of Love
- Start with a personal relationship with Jesus. (I love the way Peace with God explains it.)
- Pray for your spouse (together or separately).
- Adam and I also enjoy reading couple devotionals together on the Bible app. Click for some ideas!
- Pray for your marriage (together and separate)
- Pray for your kids (by yourself and pray for them!)
- Reach out to couple mentors (couples like Randy and Monica and Marla and Danny have been a huge BLESSING in our lives!)
- Go to church together (and serve together for extra brownie points! Lol!)
- Give together (financially, volunteering and just blessing others).
- Take a class together (I highly recommend Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey!)
- Send each other texts, DMs on Instagram, etc. It’s a way to encourage each other, flirt & stay connected!
- Plan your next date night!
Got any tips to share? Please post them in the comments below! Let’s encourage each other to build that foundation of love and fill our homes with love!
Laughing (and loving) thru life,
Coppelia
