Six tips on fostering a Christian home

So if you are a child of the 80's (or the parents of one), you probably know who this woman is. Right? If you don't, shame on you for being too young to know. If you do, keep reading to find out how she ties in to fostering a Christian home.

I'd love to hear from you on this post. My question is: How do you and your family foster a Christian home? In other words, how do you bring the Lord into your home on a daily basis? Sure, you can go to church. But how do you make him a part of everything you do. The daily stuff. The every day stuff.

I recently read an article by Focus on the Family. Each family may answer the question of how they foster a Christian home differently, but here are some general characteristics that I thought were a good reminder of how to incorporate the most important person in our lives into every day.

First, here are their suggestions:

1. Joy—Every family will encounter trials and hardships, but there is no circumstance that can rob us of our joy if we know that the key to our present welfare and future destiny lies in Christ alone.
2. Orderliness—As the apostle Paul says, "God is not the author of confusion but of peace" (I Corinthians 14:33).
3. Grace—A Christian home should be a safe place to mess up. Family members need to be reminded that love, not perfection, is the goal.
4. Service—A Christian home is tempered and flavored with acts of kindness, respect, humility and love.
5. Spiritual Disciplines—A Christ-centered home provides an environment in which every member of the family learns how to live by studying Scripture, praying, and spending time in God's presence.
6. God's Purposes—A Christian home is a place where the family's goals are founded upon His values and the vision for the future is consistent with His plan.

And now, here are my concrete (and hopely applicable) ways of incorporating God into my own home. When we didn't have kids, this seemed fairly routine. But with children, the pressure is on! JB and I often remind each other that we are not trying to raise children. We are hoping to raise Godly men and women. How do we do that? Some days, I have no idea. But here are some of the ways we try to make God the focus of our family on a daily basis.

• Memorizing scripture: We are currently memorizing a verse for our "letter" of the week. A was "All things work together for the good of those who love Him." B is "Be ye kind, one to another."
• Praying: We make it a point to let the kids pray before meals and before bed. They can pray themselves or we can pray. No one is forced to pray, but the boys often like to. We've even had to establish a rule that Elijah prays first at lunch and Isaac at dinner to avoid conflicts.
• Bible Songs: I try to play Christian kids songs whenever I can. I also teach the kids songs. I must admit that having grown up in the church, there are not very many Bible songs that I don't know. I love hearing them sing them.
• Good in = good out: We have really been convicted to monitor what our kids are watching. How much they are watching. What they are reading. What they are learning. We want Christ to be a part of their lives. And we think that we can be the best judge of that. We love Veggie Tales and Boz -- two video series that really bring Christ to the forefront. And the kids love them. 
• God in discipline: We really work on the why of behavior. Why should we be kind? Why do we not hit? We try to tie it into scripture. We try to bring everything back to God's design for our lives. A great book for this is Creative Correction by Lisa Welchel. Yes, that's Blair from Facts of Life in the picture at the top of this post! She is the author of this book, and what a great book it is. A huge thank you to my friend Angelica for recommending it to me. She presents real ways to discipline and ties scriptures in with them. Love it.

So now ... your turn. Books that have helped? Games? Movies? Activities? I'd love to hear how you make the Lord a part of your family.