It All Starts At Home

A few weeks ago, when Rocki and Misty were leading worship in A Place To Meet Jesus, Misty said this:  “We need to go back to the ruby red slippers and remember that there is no place like home.” I added her quote to one of the downloads I listen to in worship and I have been mulling over the statement since she said it.  I have realized how powerful her message is, and that I feel all of us who want change need to first understand that it all begins at home.  This is so contrary to many voices in the world that say the way to get ahead is to leave home and go to some place far away.  But I have found that God really works with what is around us.  Let’s look at the big picture for a few minutes… 

You didn’t select the place where you were born.  Only God had the ability to make that divine decision.  So already you were in God’s perfect will by being born when and where you were.  You had absolutely no choice in the matter.  It goes to say that God also selected who your mother and father were.  No wonder Jesus spent the first thirty years of His life at home with His parents.  You would think that if He was only going to have 33 1/2 years to lay down a gospel to change the world, He would have spent as little time at home as possible.  I mean, didn’t He show us that at twelve years old He was able to teach in the temple and confound the scholars of His day?  And yet He went back home for the next 18 years.  This is such a powerful lesson and an example of why God chooses to place us exactly where we are.  It is so we can reach the high calling that is in Christ Jesus.

Two years ago God spoke to me in a very profound way and said that when I get my family life together He will use me to influence others.  I have been amazed at how detailed God has become in every aspect of my family life.  He has been teaching me to really look at the smallest particulars at home.  I wrote to you a few weeks ago about me washing dishes.  But now God has even taken that to the next level.  He told me that when I wake up in the morning and start to empty out the dishwasher, that I need to pray and discern which dishes I should take out first and in what order I place them on the shelves.  I know this might sound trite and over-detailing but God is constantly reminding me that if I am “faithful in little” He will make me “ruler over much.”

This new level of faithfulness in me includes some of the most menial tasks there are to do around our house ~ from breaking down boxes to put in the recycling bin, to mowing the lawn, to washing windows, and even replacing light bulbs.  I believe little tasks can end up leading to great revelations in the Spirit ~ that can actually determine a person’s destiny.  I remember my mother told me that when she was a teenager her pastor asked her to watch over the church nursery.  She told me she put all her effort into the job because she wanted to be “the best in the world.”  That little job my mother undertook led to a bigger appointment, and then to another, and so on.

By the time my mother was in her late twenties she was conducting international church conference choirs and was pretty much famous in her own right.  This example, that I have seen in someone close to me, let me know the value of getting things right at home.  And God will promote you from that position too.  Once again I am reminded of Dorothy going to the land of Oz, and experiencing all of the difficulties she did, only to discover that there was, indeed, no place like home.  So it is in our lives.  If we are to experience the best the world has to offer, it behooves us to first discover the treasures that are in our homes.  When we do that we will have the doors open to the true treasures of success…