PREPARATION FOR A BLISSFUL HOME (3) ~ Precious Victor Akah

As someone whose home builder is God and whose foundation for building a home is the Word of God, it is essential to prepare yourself in three crucial areas for a blissful home:

1. Character

2. Financial Management

3. Sexual Purity

In our last post, we explored CHARACTER. Today, we will delve into FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT and SEXUAL PURITY.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

Effective money management is vital for a blissful home. The ability to save, spend wisely, live within your means, give generously, and invest strategically contributes to the overall well-being of a household. Furthermore, financial transparency and accountability are key to maintaining family harmony.

As an unmarried person, the financial habits you cultivate now will carry over into your marriage. If you are prone to borrowing or begging, these behaviors will persist after you tie the knot. Lavish and unwise spending now will also manifest in your marriage, as will an inability to save or appreciate the value of investments.

A financially stable marriage impacts positively on the peace of a home, while an unstable one troubles the peace of a marriage. Reckless spending can result in dire consequences, such as inadequate/unavailability of food in the home, unpaid school fees, or overdue rent, all of which disrupt the joy and tranquility of the household.

Additionally, chronic borrowers or spenders may find themselves relying on credit cards to accumulate debt they cannot repay. When creditors start seizing assets or applying pressure, some individuals may feel overwhelmed, leading to tragic decisions or the abandonment of their marriage.

It is crucial to address any poor financial habits now so they do not follow you into marriage and jeopardize your home.

Key Points to Note:

a. Have Financial Integrity  

Avoid taking money that doesn't belong to you, cheating, or defrauding others. Don't lie to take advantage of someone's ignorance to make profit. Deceitful practices will inevitably surface in marriage and create discord with your spouse. Women who mismanage funds for family needs or business often start with such habits, leading to issues when their husband discovers these tendencies. He may start to hide his money from the wife or not tell the wife how much he earns or of any monetary gifts he receives.

b. Be Financially Independent

Engage in activities that generate income. Be industrious and persistent; don’t get discouraged after initial setbacks - correct what you're not doing well and go again. Don't depend on a man to feed, clothe and house you; as long as you have a working brain, hands and feet, you can do something to make money legally. Don't be lazy to earn money, or your laziness to support your family financially or provide for the family may cause you your marriage or bring you shame, disrespect, mockery or even ill-treatment from your spouse which will ultimately affect your joy and peace in the marriage. Relying on a partner for financial support can lead to dependency and strain your marriage.

The Proverbs 31 woman exemplifies diligence in supporting her family.

c. Be Generous  

Cultivate a spirit of generosity. Being stingy can create a cycle of scarcity in your family. Open your heart and hands to help those in need, fostering a culture of giving at home. Remember that stingy bachelors often become stingy husbands and stingy fathers.

The stingy fathers we have today, who can't feed their family well, who can't buy good clothes, shoes and good things for their children and wife, and send their children to school were stingy bacherlors of yesterday. Today, stinginess has eaten deep into them that they make their wife account for every penny they give to her.

SEXUAL PURITY

Sexual purity is fundamental in establishing a blissful home. If you claim that God is the builder of your future marriage but engage in pre-marital sex, cohabitation, or other immoral sexual behaviors, you are undermining that foundation. Such actions invite negativity and regret into your future home because you're pushing God aside and inviting satan to build a bad marriage for you.

When a husband and wife refrain from pre-marital sexual relations and marry as pure individuals, they build their marriage on trust and faithfulness, which are essential for a blissful home.

Infidelity, distrust, unfaithfulness, sexual dissatisfaction, immoral sexual addictions are some of the major troublers of marriages today, and the top destroyers of marriage. Keep them away from your future marriage by honouring God with your body today as an unmarried person.

Keep yourself sexually pure to attract a partner who is sexually pure in order to build a blissful home.

FINAL WORD

Have the fear of God. To fear God is to shun/avoid evil.

Having the fear of God helps you treat your spouse well and enjoy your marriage.

Make prayer and the study of God’s Word daily habits. Fast and pray for your future home. I consistently declared the kind of home I wanted, envisioned it, and prayed for it—and today, my dreams have materialized. You can do the same, and God will bring it to fruition.

If you've made mistakes and the devil is convincing you right now that you've missed it and there is no going back or no second chance, I want you to know that you can always go back to start again and start right with God. God will always accept you whenever you realise your mistakes and seek His forgiveness and mercy genuinely.

Go back to God. He'll accept you wholeheartedly and fix you up.

God still loves and cares about you deeply.

Stay blessed.