7 Characteristics to Instill in Your Home

by: Jeanie Cullip 24/7 MOMS Inspiration Editor

God has chosen you and made you his holy people. He loves you. So you should always clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other, and forgive each other. If someone does wrong to you, forgive that person because the Lord forgave you. Even more than all this, clothe yourself in love. Love is what holds you all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:12-14

1. Compassion
2. Kindness
3. Humility
4. Gentleness
5. Patience
6. Forgiveness
   
7. Love

Compassion is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

We can instill compassion into our homes by:

• supporting & helping others without expecting anything in return
• responding to disagreements and negative behavior with love

The goal is to do the right thing and do what Jesus would do.

Kindness is the state or quality of being kind, a kind act or behavior; favor, a friendly feeling.


We can instill kindness in to our homes by:

• living by the golden rule and one of the best-known of Jesus' sayings. Do unto others as you would have them do to you.
  If you want to feel comfortable, loved, respected in your home; begin by being welcoming, comforting, loving and respectful to all those in your home.
• keeping a loving attitude
• thinking before you speak. If what you are about to say is going to make the receiver upset, angry or some other negative effect, keep it to yourself. This will get you a lot farther that blurting out something that can damage one's day or their self esteem
• If you have a problem with someone in your home tell the other person one on one first and try working out the issue.

By incorporating kindness into our homes we are showing the love of Jesus.


Humility is the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc.

Being humble is not being full of ourselves. It is recognizing we are not perfect, we have faults but with the Lord we can do all things.

So how can we incorporate humility into our homes?

• accept you cannot do it all. Prioritize what is important to you and your family and with the Lord's help your family will be able to manage what you need to accomplish
• in all blessings give thanks to God. I f you do something well you can share the good news but make sure to give credit to where credit is due.
• increase one another esteem. Philippians 2:3 states Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves (we should encourage one another in our homes)
• making time for the other family members. Stop being selfish of our time and go the extra mile for another

Gentleness is characteristic of good birth; honorable; respectable, easily handled or managed, polite; refined We can be gentle by being submissive to the Lord's will. We can instill this into our homes by:

• praying for our family
• staying true to our beliefs ( the story of Esther is teaching me that I should never fear doing the right thing)

Patience is the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like. an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay, quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence

We can instill patience into our homes by:

• not giving up. No matter what the circumstances do not give up on each other. Finish what you started, pray and do not be discouraged
• accept the things we cannot control in our lives and the things we cannot change

Forgiveness is act of forgiving; state of being forgiven. disposition or willingness to forgive, a pardon

We can instill forgiveness in our homes by:

• offering an apology to another - quickly
• admitting you were wrong without excuse
• forgiving as the Lord has forgiven us. Jesus forgave us even though we did not deserve it

Love is completing the highest good for the other person. Always doing what is best for them. 1 Corinthians 13 tells us how we can instill love into our homes.

• being patient with one another
• being kind to one another
• showing humility
• trusting one another
• celebrating our blessings and not being jealous
• never giving up
• protecting one another
• rejoicing in the Lord
• Giving 2nd chances
• knowing when to be silent and when to speak

If you love someone and you are unsure what you need to do in a situation a great way to come up with a solution or know if your solution is right is ask if what I am going to do the highest good for the other person, what I am about to do is it the best thing for them? When we incorporate these 7 christian characteristics in our homes each family member will begin to become the person God wants them to be and will bring your family closer to Jesus and closer to each other. How do you instill christian characteristics into your home? Please share with us here in the comments section below or the discussion on our Ning!

Blessings & Giggles to you & yours,


Stay- at- Home Mommy & Writer

Jeanie Cullip is a happily married, stay-at-home mommy of 3 children of her own and 2 step-children. Finding joy, love & hope right in her own back yard and sharing it with her neighbors near and far. Love with Jesus, love to giggle & love to drink coffee. She is a freelance writer residing in Gig Harbor. Find out more at Cup of Joe with Jeanie for questions and comments please e-mail her at cupofjoewithjeanie@yahoo.com