Yesterday, as I sat at home preparing for dinner, after wrapping up a few loose ends to help a business client, my husband and I received a call from my mother in law.
She urged us to turn on the news. We witnessed a mob of radical Trump loyalists with confederate flags taking the Capitol Building. There were pictures of a white man with his feet on Nancy Pelosi’s desk.
As I turned to social media, I witnessed the outrage of black men and women, because when black people protest the response is different. No tear gas or armed cars were deployed. This national threat hadn’t even been detained as the world looked on.
Last night, as I laid my head down to sleep, nursing my 2-month old brown son, I wondered what world he would have to contend with as he became a man. I thought about the temperament of my older two boys and how they would respond to the injustices in our nation and in our world. I often wonder how their creativity, passion and beauty will color in the jagged edges of the unfair world we live in.
I began to pray and ask God for wisdom to protect their beauty and the life within each and every one of my children’s souls. I asked God to help shape them into what the world needs. But I also asked God to help shape me into a solution. I want to be part of the solution. God forbid we sit idly by while our world is pain. The people of God can no longer sleep. God forbid we prop our feet up in our cushy homes and do nothing while people are risking their lives for what they believe.
As a Christian, as a woman of God, I must do my role even now, with this blog post. Writers must write. Singers must sing. Activists must activate. We must all use our God-given gifts and talents to rise up and stand out against injustice.
And I believe it starts at home.
There is a saying “Home is where the heart is.”
Since the emergence of the coronavirus, many of us have spent more and more time at home like never before. No longer are we hustling and bustling from event to event or from store to store. For many of us, we have been forced to slow down and “shelter in place”.
As the hours accumulate, the essence of who we are as a people begins to concentrate. Our hopes, dreams, preferences, likes and dislikes are all distilled into the atmosphere of our homes. The household becomes an incubator for emotions, thoughts, spirits, patterns, habits – cultivated by television choices, music, games, movies, words…every influence within the home sits – its impact multiplying.
Whether peace or discord whether hate or love, violence or calm – it passes from person to person, reshaped into a new personality with each interaction.
Sometimes lodged into the deep stores of memory only to be regurgitated in a nearly unrecognizable form – from a seed to a tree – a gremlin to a monster.
Today, the state of our homes is more important than ever. We are raising the next generation of Congressmen and women, activists, business leaders, artists and Christians. The world we live in today will be the world that we hand off to our children.
As I lie awake in my bed last night, I wondered what kind of future would my precious children have. There are so many uncertainties about what 2021 will hold. Are we heading towards civil war? Will Trump declare a national state of emergency?
However, there are certain steps that we can take as parents, as leaders and as children of God to declare victory in our homes:
Declare the blessings and promises of scripture over your home through prayer.
Let me break this down:
Scripture:
Psalm 91:1 says “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
Explanation:
This means that when you are in the presence of God through prayer, through covenant relationship and when you have the Holy Spirit, you are so close to God that His shadow is over you.
My son, Journée, is only 2-months old, which means often, I am holding him close to me. He nestles his little head under my neck. You could say that he is in my shadow.
We are in the shadow of the Almighty, when we dwell in the secret place of prayer. Okay, so now that we have described what this scripture means, let’s pray it out:
Prayer
Thank you, Lord, that I dwell in your secret place. Lord, I thank you that you’ve allowed me to abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
Father I thank you that I’m safe in your secret place. Lord, I thank you that my home is in your secret place. I thank you that my children are in the shadow of the Almighty.
Find a scripture that speaks to your fear, your desire or whatever it is that you’re asking from God, whether it’s protection for your children, or deliverance from fear and confess the blessings and promises of that scripture through prayer.
Pray for our country.
It can be easy to get on IG and Facebook and vent – it’s good that we stand up for righteousness – but if we put that energy towards prayer. What if we prayed for our President, even if we don’t agree with his mechanisms? What if we asked God for wisdom to protect our country’s leaderships, to give our local leaders wisdom to protect our children? What if we prayed for peace in our nation?
Prayer changes things.
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 1 Chronicles 7:14
When we humble ourselves and pray and ask for God’s help, He answers. Prayer changes things! Can I get an amen?
Have family Bible Study.
Teach your children God’s Word. Pick one scripture and explain it to them. Many of us are no longer in weekly church services, so we must be the pastors in our own home. We must shepherd our children into salvation. We can no longer rely on Sunday School and Kid’s Church to save our children – we have to take responsibility for teaching our children the Word of God.
Be a leader in the culture.
Stand up for righteousness. Have the audacity to have your own opinion and don’t dwell on what everyone else is saying or doing. Pray and ask God for wisdom in your arena of influence and take action. We need a David who will fight the Goliaths of this generation. We need a Nehemiah who will build even when it seems impossible. We need you to operate in your gifts!
In prayer last night, as I asked God for direction to help settle and heal this broken world, He pointed me back to my purpose. I am a writer, I am a speaker, I help women organize and design their lives so they can experience God’s purpose for their life.