Every family has it’s own culture. Some family’s are calm, others are hyper. Some families are organized and collected others are frantic and frazzled. Today, I have 3 H’s for you to build the culture of your home.

Honor – Build a culture of honor in your home.

Honor begins when you teach your kids to honor God first. Let them know God is to be honored above everyone. You don’t have to preach this to them. Live honor before them. Honor God with your time, your money, your language, and your love.

Your kids also need to honor you as their parent. The Bible is pretty clear about children honoring their parents (Ephesians 6:2). Our culture has in some ways forgotten about honor. But, honoring is important to God. If you want your kids to honor you, be honorable. You have authority, but always use that authority in love.

Don’t dishonor your spouse to your kids. Instead, honor them. Recently, I watched my son, Josiah do this with his son, Joshy. I over heard his conversation with Joshy, which went something like this, “Joshy, let’s surprise Mama with her favorite meal and some flowers!” What was Josiah doing? He was honoring his wife, Shainey.

Finally, as far as honor goes, teach your kids to honor each other. Romans 12:9 says, “Honor one another.” The way you honor one another is to speak respectfully to each other. Respectful communication does not include name-calling or harsh yelling. Don’t ever allow your kids to make fun of each other or anyone else for that matter. Every person has been made in the image or God and as such has intrinsic value. Teach them to work out their conflicts with each other and others with honor.

Hope – Build a Culture of Hope in Your Home.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace” Romans 15:13. Hope keeps attitudes positive at home.
How do you build a culture of hope? Here are just a few ideas:

• Build a sense of anticipation about upcoming events. i.e. vacation. Look forward to it and follow through.
• When your child faces a difficult challenge let them know you believe that God will do it through them.
• Let your child know God is with them and for them. Always.
• Speak about the future positively. Of course not everything in the future looks awesome. But, you want your kids to know, God is on the throne and you can’t wait to see what He accomplishes.

Humor – Build a culture of Humor in Your Home

Life is too short not to laugh. Laugh a lot. Laugh out loud. Laugh together. Proverbs 31:25 tells us that the virtuous woman, “can laugh at the days to comes.” In other words, part of virtue is having a sense of humor. Humor was after all God’s idea. Jesus had a sense of humor. If you doubt that, read through the gospels and check out the parables. Some of them are hysterically funny! The family that laughs together enjoys life.   Don’t take yourself too seriously. Some days while raising kids are so chaotic all you really can do is laugh!

I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment and let me know your idea for building a culture of honor, hope or humor at home. I’ll choose one comment and that person will win a free copy of The 30 Day Praise Challenge For Parents.