Choose Three Words

I was a guest on the Making Joy Normal Podcast this past week, Episode 20: Homemaking, Path to Holiness.  At the end of our conversation Bonnie said “Many of us come into homemaking flying by the seat of our pants, we feel whatever we are doing is not working and ask ourselves…How do I do this? Where do you recommend people start when it comes to growing in homemaking?” 

This is what I suggested as an easy and gentle place to start.

Choose three words. 

Three words that you desire your home and family life to be. 

Three words to describe life in your home.

Three words that your days are centered around. 

…just three words.

It is like a simple home mission statement.  These three words help to clarify how you spend your days and what you build your life around. They prioritize what is most important to your family. And they help get you out of the place of discouragement in your tasks.

When I did this a while ago, it helped me live more intentionally. It clarified my desires and gave me a vision for how to spend my time. It helped me order my life.  It also encouraged me because I realized I was already doing many things that fit those words.  It made me realize I didn't need to work so hard to be and do EVERYTHING other people were doing because we had different priorities- different visions for what we wanted our home to be.

 When you do this exercise, be honest with yourself and don’t try to be what others are, ponder the words that you are most drawn to, the ones that bring you a feeling of joy.  Talk about it with your spouse and decide together.  You may find it challenging to choose just three words, but it is an important exercise to narrow your vision on just three words. And your words can grow and change as you develop your habits in the home and as the seasons of life change. 

Examples of Words

Here are a few examples of words you could consider:

Beauty, Playfulness, Simplicity, Christ-Centered, Nourishing, Warm, Comforting, Clean, Educational, Musical, Fun, Ordered, Peaceful, Organic/Non-toxic, Hospitable, Technological…the list goes on and on!

After you pick your words, I encourage you to write out a description of what these words mean to you. Here are the three words in my current season of life along with their descriptions…

These are my three words: 

1. Prayer

   We want our home to be Christ-centered and want our daily life to show this.  We want to build our family around routine daily prayer and we want prayer to animate all our actions.  I believe prayer to be the most important of all my homemaking tasks. 

2. Simplicity

   We want to live by what is necessary and not have excess in material possessions but also to have simplicity in our daily routine and schedule.  To not be overly busy, just live simply with simple necessary things. 

3. Wonder

   My husband and my first conversation was about the beauty of God’s creation.  We stood on the beach in wonder looking at the horizon.  When I get a glimpse of the beauty that surrounds my days in the home, I find great joy in the wonder of it all…the delight of my children and all the simple ordinary things. And if there was only one thing we could give to our daughters it would be for them to have the eyes to see the wonder of God all around them.  

I hope you find this exercise fruitful and I would love to know what words you choose! Feel free to leave a comment below and go check out the podcast episode!