Your house

Proverbs 14:1 – “Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.”

If your not a fan of personal responsibility, then you probably won’t like this verse. Solomon could not have said it better if he tried.

You see, in our society, we are looking to blame somebody for something. “It’s not my fault I’m fat. I don’t have the right food options at McDonald’s.” “I don’t make good grades because the teacher doesn’t teach me what I need to know.” “My marriage is falling apart because we have just grown apart.”

Life takes work. Living requires doing. Doing requires that you choose to take ownership of things to make them happen. And with that comes personal responsibility.

As women, we are known as the “keeper of the home.” I guarantee that if you were to ask my husband right now where the cheese grater, hole punch or thermometer are, he probably could point you in the right direction but could not immediately tell you where they are at. Ladies, it is our responsibility to keep up with our house physically.

But it is also our responsibility to keep up with our homes emotionally. The devil is out there looking to destroy us. He wants to make our lives miserable. He wants us to remember all the yuck that has happened lately and wear it around like a banner of honor of all the junk you have had to deal with. The “poor little me” t-shirt is ugly. Take it off and throw it away! You see, by choosing to wear that shirt, you are slowly tearing down your house. It’s like that box of cookies that disappear slowly. You don’t sit down and take it out in one swoop. You take one here and one there and another later until you realize you ate the whole box. And then you feel miserable because you ate the whole thing. Tearing down your house feels just as bad and worse. First, you start wondering why you feel like no one in your house is talking to you. Then you start planning things without discussing them with your mate. And the next thing you know, your house is in shambles around you. I have been blessed that I have not personally experienced this. However, I have seen it many times in the lives of people around me. I know that if I chose one day to get up and not work on my marriage that I could very easily find myself in this position. I know that my life and my marriage are susceptible. I know that without Jesus reminding me daily to love my husband and my family that I would find myself tearing down my own house.

And sister, I think that is where we fail. We want to blame someone else. We want to choose to be blameless in our walk – when we are not. We all fail. We all mess up. We all fall into the pit of despair at times. But Jesus is standing at the top with His hand out reached desiring to pull us up out of the yuck to walk back alongside Him.

Building your house is not one time deal. It is constantly in need of attention. It requires that you clean it. It requires that you decorate it and celebrate in it. It requires that you repair it occasionally. It requires that you be attentive to it. It requires that you live in it and learn it. Just like your physical house, the house of your marriage and your life require attention. Don’t neglect either one of them.