Seasons of a Mothers Heart - Chapter 4

I am reading Seasons of a Mothers Heart by Sally Clarkson and linking up over at Home With The Boys. Remember you can also follow tweets about the book by using hashtag #momsheart.

Chapter 4 - Building Your House
I learned that in order to build your house you must first "start building with a good plan." Well I am planner so this should be easy right?

We are still working on our plan and I am sure that more items will be added over time. But over the past couple of months we have accomplished several steps in our plan. The first step was to for me to quite my job so that I could be home with the kids. The second step was to homeschool our children which we have started (we are about to start our 9th week). The third step was to get a routine in place. Ever since our kids were babies they have always liked and responded better when they are on a routine (especially our daughter). We are still working on some of the routines for my husband and myself, but I think the kids are enjoying their new routines. Our fifth step  is to work on our parenting and disciplining. And our final step is to have our children grow into compassionate, honest, courageous, intelligent, trustworthy, responsible adults. 

After you have a plan you must "build a strong foundation" and "count the cost to build." Well we are finally on our way to building our strong foundation. After 5 yrs of not being able to "really" be the mother I had always dreamed of  being, I am finally home and ready to begin the building of our strong foundation. We know it will take sometime and there is definitely a large cost involved but the rewards that we have reaped so far have made it well worth the cost. It has been a tough few months and I am sure we will have a few more ahead of us but we know we are being watched over and provided for. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you know then that I have had extremely good luck lately. But I firmly believe it is much more than good luck. We were also blessed by a friend with some groceries. And  thanks to the rising gold and silver prices were able to sell some old silver coins and gold and platinum jewelry to get some extra cash (to help with our move and hubby's job change). Our cost to build may be a large one but because of the plan we have in place we will come out strong without any bad debt.

My Life:
What a great personal application. Identify one or two specific character qualities in your life that you need to work on. Determine what the "cost" will be to build that character in your life. Take one step this week toward paying that cost.  So the character quality I will be working on is Patience. I need to work on this with the children, our finances, our move and our plans. The cost will be me letting go and realizing that I am not in control and that everything will work out if I just put faith in him. 

Quotes and Scriptures that really hit my heart:
-Proverbs 14:1 - "The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down." pg 84
-It's not that difficult to control external behavior. It is much more difficult though, to look beyond the behavior and address the heart issues behind it. pg 88
-A few weeks ago I felt like this so this paragraph really helped me, "Over the years, these costs have occasionally accelerated and come due all at the same time in my life. At those times, I have felt overwhelmed and defeated and I wanted to quite. But because I had counted the cost, I knew I would keep going. One step at a time I would go forward, trusting God all the way, because I knew that my house was worth building." pg 89

 If you have read the book please feel free to share your thoughts!