{Home is the starting place for lived-out-love, a place where the needs of the whole person are cared for.  This post explores encouraging personal growth.}

This is the final post in this series! This week we’ll consider how we care for each others’ need to learn and grow as individuals, which includes encouraging and celebrating each other!

Throughout this series of posts, we’ve explored the physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual aspects of home. We also considered how we extend love to others beyond our home.  Home looks different throughout the seasons of life; yet we all need these aspects of home and can build them in intentional and creative ways!  I began this series with this verse:

“The wisest of women builds her house …”  ~Proverbs 14:1

The wise woman builds her home with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.  God is our source of wisdom, and He can teach and inspire us as we incorporate these aspects into our home.  We’ve explored how we can fill the rooms of our homes with precious and pleasant riches.  These riches can include things like: clean clothes for a loved one, an apology offered, space and time to listen, or a prayer said together.

By wisdom a house is built,
    and by understanding it is established;
by knowledge the rooms are filled
    with all precious and pleasant riches. ~Proverbs 24:3-4

This kind of loving home, and the relationships that flow from it, support us so we can be growing, learning people.  This begins with mental growth, such as being encouraged in school as a child.  It includes all sorts of opportunities to learn new things through conversations, extracurricular activities, new skills, and coursework.  It extends into adulthood with college classes.  It also involves personalized learning, such as reading books, completing courses on LinkedIn Learning, and attending conferences.  When the basic needs of home are met, we are more able to go on to grow as a person and develop our skills to become more fully who God has shaped us to be!

We can support each other in learning new ideas, trying new activities, and accomplishing challenging goals!  As parents we do this with our children, like when my daughters learned how to ride their bike.  This applies to adults as well!  For example, Richard has supported and encouraged me as I’ve taken Christian life coaching classes and explored how to use WordPress.  He listens to my ideas, proofreads my posts (thanks so much, honey!), and invests financially in my coursework and a WordPress website.  We can show support to each other in many ways!  Ideas include:  sharing finances, researching opportunities, giving our time to talk or be involved, and expressing care and interest.

We can showcase each other’s accomplishments and celebrate each other!  With love we notice the work and creativity of those we live with, and speak encouraging words.  We encourage them to use their abilities and find ways to continue growing and learning.  We cheer each other on!

Let’s build each other up in love.  And continue to grow in every aspect of our homes and lives!

Think about those you live with (or people you’re closest to):  what are their unique interests, abilities, or talents?  How can you encourage them?  How can you support their continued growth?

What is one step you’d like to take?

See these links for other topics:

1 The Wise Woman Builds Her Home (Introduction) ~ 2 Meeting Our Basic Needs With Care (Physical) ~ 3 Our Home, Haven (Emotional) ~ 4 Our Closest Relationships (Relational) ~ 5 An Open Door (A Heart of Hospitality) ~ 6 Fellow Sheep (Spiritual)

Kathryn Featherstone is a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach and a board-certified Christian Life Coach, who helps people live and love well out of their strengths and their relationship with Christ. She’d like to encourage you in your journey! Write her a note or see her Coaching page.