Category Archives: Family

Change the Atmosphere in Your Home?

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I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.” Psalm 69:30

Did you know that when you have a thankful heart the atmosphere of your home will change?  Try it, and see how the Lord will transform your home into a peaceful habitation.

When you start offering Thanksgiving and Praise, you will immediately find that it only takes one person giving thanks and soon the whole house will be full of thanksgiving.   The following verses from the Old Testament gives an account of how the glory of the Lord filled the house when they praised and thanked Him.

“And the Levites who were the singers, all those of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, stood at the east end of the altar, clothed in white linen, having cymbals, stringed instruments and harps, and with them one hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets– indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound, to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying: “For He is good, for His mercy endures forever, “that the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.” 2 Chronicles 5:12-14

Share Thanks in your home today, and watch how the Lord will fill your house.

“Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence.”    Psalms 140:1

Leaving the Little House

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“God sent forth His son… to redeem them that were under the law, that they might receive the adoption of sons. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 4:4, 5, 7)

So how do you get out of the little house?  How do you lay aside the lies you have believed that keep you in the past?  You start with the words that bound you up or tore you down instead of building you up.  You will feel like a child as long as you stay bound by the words that were spoken when you were a child. (Read I Corinthians 13:11)

I am a parent of three children, and I know I have said hurtful things to my children; I have asked for their forgiveness many times.  Like clearing a garden of weeds, forgiveness removes the words from their minds.  I believe parents should check their children’s gardens daily just to see if any lies have been planted.  Many times parents do not even realize how the things they say affect their children. A parent can say one thing and a child hear something entirely different.  I am not blaming parents in this exercise; my goal is to uproot the lies and heal the hurts.

Allow your Father God to uproot every lie that you have believed and plant His Word of Truth. Find scriptures that tell you of your Heavenly Father’s love for you.  His love is the river that John saw in Revelations 21: “There is a river that flows from the throne of God.”

Who Are You?

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Who are youYou may look to your place of birth and the family you grew up in to find out who you are.  Whether you were born into a rich home, or born into poverty, it doesn’t really matter. Your family background does not define who you are. Your family background is simply the ground in which you were planted. This is why we are referred to as “Oaks of Righteousness” in Isaiah 61. Now, who are you?

As a little girl, I would go to visit my grandfather every summer.  He lived in a big beautiful home in the mountains, a stately mansion with two boxwood trees as an archway you passed through at the entrance. As our car traveled up the winding road I felt my excitement rising.  I felt like I was going to see the most important man, a statesman, a King.  My grandfather was that impressive to me.  He was very wise, kind, and I admired him and loved to visit with him.  He enjoyed having company, and if he knew we were coming, he would stand on the porch watching for us to arrive.  A visit with him in his big, white, stately house made me feel like I was somebody special.  If he was important, then I must be somebody important too.

A number of years ago I traveled up the same winding road, but this time everything was different.  My grandfather was gone and the excitement of seeing him standing on the porch was no longer felt.  It had been almost ten years since I had seen the old home and walked up the steps of the big house where he lived.  The same road that, as a child seemed to go on forever, was actually just a little “one lane” gravel road.  As the house came into view, I realized it was also different than what I remembered.  What a shock!  The big mansion on the mountain was so little; just a farm house sitting on the side of a hill.

This experience began a journey for me that I now titled: “The Journey From the Little House to the Big House”.  It is a teaching on how we travel from our family of origin to find who we really are.  I began this journey that day, searching for my true identity, worth, and purpose in life.  If my grandfather wasn’t really a statesman living in a mansion, then who was I?  If he was just a farmer in a little farmhouse, as his granddaughter, who am I?

Even within the same family, each person must discover their true identity apart from their family.  Our true identity is not earthly it is heavenly.  We were God’s plan in the first place.  God created each of us differently, as a unique expression of his handiwork.  Our life is a beautiful, hand woven tapestry with thousands of stitches all carefully placed in a design.

Early in life, our tapestry is a lot of different colored threads.  However, as time goes on and we lay our life into the Father’s hands, He gently weaves the threads of our life together and a beautiful tapestry is revealed.  Each tapestry God weaves is a “one of a kind” and He has a different purpose in mind for each unique design.  When you finally find out who God says you are, you are a tapestry to be used in His house. God’s house, His kingdom on earth; is the “Big House.” It is a dwel ling place of peace, as you embrace and live in who He says you are. He loves what He creates; He has a plan and purpose for each unique creation.

For me, those wonderful days at my grandfather’s house planted a desire in me to find the “Big House”. I have found it, and it is grand. Now I know I am somebody special, because I know who He says I am.

Hold-on To Your Gifts

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GiftsCelebrate God’s gifts everyday and you will always have them.

God’s gift, Jesus Christ was the greatest gift that was ever given.  If you were living during the special time in history and observed the humble birth of our Lord, would you have overlooked this wonderful gift?

Think about it – the only ones recorded who recognized, and cherished the gift were Mary, Joseph, the wise men, and the shepherds.  But, there were many people living in that day who passed right by and never recognized Jesus as a gift.

Look all around you.  Are you overlooking some of God’s precious gifts?  Are you celebrating and thanking Him for your children, your husband, or your wife and others in your family?  Let us not get so busy that we pass right by a gift and fail to thank God.

Those we fail to celebrate we begin to just tolerate and those we just tolerate soon fade away.  You must hold on to the gifts God has given you by being thankful for them.  Those we are thankful for – we will cherish and hold them carefully in our heart.

Pray this prayer: “Lord, open my eyes so I can see Your gifts all around me.”

What is Perfect Love?

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“Perfect love casts out all fear, for fear hath torment. And he that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” 1 John 4:18

Perfect LoveWe are born with a need for love and fear is waiting at the door when we don’t receive it.  The first time we are touched and held as an infant, the need for love is met, but only for a moment.  As an infant, the ability to hold on to love has not been established.  The ability to hold on when someone says they are holding you is what we call “trust”.

Just as a baby will continue to cry until he/she learns how to trust, we as adults will continue to cry and complain until we mature and learn to trust God completely.

We first learn to trust through loving, nurturing parents.  We learn that we can trust them to return, even when they are away for a day.  Once trust has been established, they can be away for longer periods of time and we still feel secure and loved.  Their continual flow of love keeps our hearts soft.  A lack of love due to neglect, rejection or abuse is painful and causes emotions to shut down, so the heart begins to harden.

Each time pain is felt, a stone is formed in the heart.  After a period of time, the stones form a wall around the heart for protection against further pain.  A person with a stony heart has a difficult time receiving love from God or others.  The very thing that is needed is blocked out.

We all have areas of our heart that are stony due to the fact that we all have been hurt when love did not flow properly from our parents.  They could only give what they received from their parents.  You cannot drink water from an empty cup.

Women, did you have long periods of time when your father wasn’t in your life?  You may have built a wall around your heart making it difficult to trust and receive love from your husband.  Men, did you have a long period of time when you were not receiving nurturing from your mother?  You may experience difficulty trusting and receiving love from your wife.

Ask God for His perfect love to fill you; for God is the only one who has perfect love, (I John 4:18).

Imperfect love hurts; perfect love heals.

Written by Denise Boggs.

He Heals the Broken Hearted

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“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3

Connecting with people is sometimes very difficult to do.  And how heartbreaking it is when – for whatever reason – we can’t seem to connect even with those who are closest to us.

If you have been hurt in a relationship, you may be guarding your heart and fearful of being hurt again. It is very hard and even impossible to connect when you can’t lay your guard down and open your heart.

Trust God to heal your heart that has been wounded or betrayed and is now broken.  If you find it hard to connect with others you may have a wounded heart that needs to be healed.  Healing comes by faith.  The prayer of faith shall heal the sick and the prayer of faith shall heal the heart.

Pray this simple prayer right now and by faith begin receiving your healing:

Father God, It is hard for me to connect to others. I have been hurt and I want to be healed. I ask you to heal my broken heart and bind up my wounds.

In Jesus name, Amen.

Written by Denise Boggs.

Learning to Trust Again

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“He heals the brokenhearted and bindeth up their wounds.” Psalms 147:3

God has made full provision for healing the pain of past so you can trust again.

Have you ever trusted someone to love you that did not know how to love?  Or have you ever loved someone that did not know how to receive your love?

In both cases you will experience rejection. This type of rejection is very painful especially when it comes from someone whom you really trust. The pain from being hurt by someone you trust is much greater than being hurt by a casual friend.  It takes years to build trust, but it only takes a moment of rejection to tear down trust. This is because when you trust someone, you open your heart up to them.  When they reject you, the natural tendency is to close your heart to them in order to avoid being hurt again. The pain that comes from rejection creates a big wound that must be healed in order to be able to trust that person again.

Jesus made complete provision for our physical and emotional healing.  But many people are stuck, “locked in time” desperately needing to be set free from the pain of the past. One way many people try to get rid of pain is to just forget what happened and forget about the person who hurt them.  You can tear that person out of your address book and for a while you will be able to forget what happened but if healing did not occur the pain is still there.

The pain that lingers from the past keeps you tied to the past.  Isaiah, the prophet, said in Isaiah 1:4-6 that those people who have not been healed will go backwards. Like taking one step forward and then two steps backward, you aren’t getting anywhere.

Another way many people deal with pain is to run from it or pretend it really isn’t there.  Pain is like a shadow you look around and it is still there no matter how fast you run.  That is why so many people are walking around with the shadow of the past still on them.  Pain must be faced and dealt with in order for it to be put away.   Instead of running from pain, stop, turn around and face it.  Pain must be faced to be healed.

You may be one who has received some healing, but the pain still remains. Jeremiah 6:14 also says that when a person has only been healed slightly, they say peace, peace, but when there is no peace. The amount of peace you are having can be a good indicator of how much healing you have received. Once you are healed and the pain is gone you will be ale to hold your heart open again and trust. Healing produces trust in you. If the person that hurt you has proven over and over to not be trustworthy, suggest they also receive healing. Healing produces trustworthiness in them.

Then wait on the Lord to give you peace.

Written by Denise Boggs.

Love Never Fails

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“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God…” (John 4:7)

Letting someone know how much you love and appreciate them is the key to a meaningful relationship.  Everyone needs to know they are loved; love is the motivating force behind most of our feelings and actions. When you do not think you are loved you shut down, but when you know you are loved, you feel encouraged and motivated and your spirit is awakened.

The need for love is as essential as the need for water. You can not live very long without water and you cannot live without love. When water is being poured out it flows. Love is much the same way when it is poured out there is a flow, and you will notice a distinct flow in a relationship where love is present.

In a marriage there has to be a connection or bond for the love to flow.  If either the husband or the wife does not know how to bond then it will be hard to have a flow in the relationship. A bond is like a pipeline that connects the two people together.  In your home you know you have a leak in the pipes if you turn on the shower and only a few drops come out. The same is true in a marriage if you start a conversation and only get a few drops are heard, you have a problem.

Other signs that love is not flowing:

  • Every conversation ends in a misunderstanding
  • Every conversation ends with someone hurt
  • Every conversation requires one to be defensive
  • Every conversation end up with only one doing all the talking

Because love is as essential for life as water, many marriages are drying up like a dessert waste land. The main plant that can live in a desert is a cactus. If you have ever tried to get close to a cactus you will know they are unlovable and are not very huggable. A marriage can get to this point without the flow of love on a daily basis. If you realize your marriage has become a desert, and your relationship is not growing, it is time to water it.  Begin showing love again, love never fails.

Written by Denise Boggs.