Creating culture has been on my heart.

Culture in my mind is the ways we do life-- what we were taught as right and wrong, what's appropriate in certain situations, how to communicate with others, maybe even how to make particular meals, etc. within the homes and communities in which we were raised. Culture shapes our vernacular, how we refer to ourselves and others, what we wear, what we eat... even how we view the world and those who are not part of our culture. Culture, in my opinion, shapes our view of success and what we're capable of as women and men.

Culture is defined (from an Anthropology perspective) on dictionary.com as "the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another." It's also "the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc." And "the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular group of people, as a social, ethnic, professional, or age group."

As many of you have noticed, I've been highlighting each of my Bonus Kids on Fridays in my feature social media write-up "Friday Family Spotlight." My goal with this feature was to take time to ponder with God how He sees each of my children and to point out the best characteristics of each and also "call out" the gold that is still forming.

The process of sitting down to converse with God and formulate each "word of life," as I call them, has been one of healing, promise, and revealing of hidden treasures in each of my kids that I needed to see as their Bonus Mother. And the real Bonus in the whole "project" has been reading each "Spotlight" to each of my kids! Reading each entry to each individual child has encouraged a deeper relationship between each one and myself. It's been so healthy and much needed. And as a result I've been aiming more intentionally to "call out the gold" more regularly in my home.

Before the "project" I'd been trying... as this is what I encourage Kingdom Educators to do in my FB Group, "The Gathering Place". After all this is what I did with my teenage students in my public school classroom... and yet, it's been hard to do in my own home with my own Bonus teens. Somehow being together day in and day out (living the full life of 7 kids in a smaller house in the middle of COVID challenges) dilutes the seeing of the sparkly gold nuggets that need to be cultivated to shine brighter. It's been in the journey of intentionality that God and I have connected more and gone back to heal some wounds I accumulated in relating to each of my children in the beginning of our journey in becoming ONE big blended Glover family; it's also shed light on how amazing each of my kids is aside from the flaws or the "could be improved by..." box I often run to in my mind as a person wired to bring improvements to situations (yes I took the ... test). Stopping to notice, to smell the roses, is pertinent with our students and especially our own children. You know, the ones we see everyday. Or in my case, every other week.

This quote hit me a few days ago: "In some ways, developing a royal culture in the church depends on that culture first being instilled in our families. God desires our homes to be like palaces where our children are called, trained and equipped to walk in their prophetic destinies. I don't mean that our houses have to be expensive, beautiful, or even ours, but they need to be places that remind us of our prophetic destiny and cultivate that destiny in and through us...Our identity comes to us from the Lord but it is communicated to us first by our parents. If we have generations of healthy family life, we are more likely to know who we are." (Kris Valloton, pg. 80-81 in The Supernatural Ways of Royalty).

It speaks directly to my heart behind developing culture in our homes and WHY we need to have our own "Friday Family Spotlights" on a daily basis... in small realistic, applicable approaches that call up our children into their true identities. We need more insight and it's all built on intimacy with God; we NEED to hear His heart and then relay it to our children. When we hear His heart for our children, we can discipline from a place of instilling insight into their true identity and the behavior that follows. We can call forth the confidence they're invited to step into knowing they are safe, loved, and supported. We can redirect their words to reflect the truth about who they are and who they're speaking about.

What are you being challenged to see in your children? What are you being challenged to dialogue with God about with regards to your family? What else do you need to see in the "picture" of who your own children are and also who they are becoming?"

I know for me, I desire more prophetic words for my kids... more encouragement, edification, and hope to release over them verbally and also through presence-- being together-- hugging them, doing life with them from a place of being filled with the full LIFE that Jesus paid for. He said He came that I would have life and life abundantly. I want the abundant life for my family and I. Open my eyes, God! Open my ears to what you see, what you hear, and what you feel about each member of my household because I want to refer to them and treat them as you see them. Amen.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Resources: