Creating a Faith-Filled Home at the Start of a New Year

Usually the new year is filled with resolutions and goals to kickstart new habits and start fresh. That has been me for as long as I can remember, creating a heavy weight to carry at the beginning of each year.

If you caught my previous entry you’ll know that I am approaching this year quite a bit different than I have many years in the past. Instead of trying to hustle harder and make things happen for myself I have realized a deep need for fun, to loosen up a bit, and to fully indulge in the life that I have been given. As I’ve gotten older there is no question that everything seems to move faster. Time slips through the cracks more than I can understand and I realized that I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to manage my time only to still watch it fall through my fingertips.

This is not the way I have intended to live.

I can only imagine this isn’t how any of us picture our lives going. Yeah, maybe we were young and innocent at a time dreaming big and believing we could conquer the world. Sometimes I still have that desire. Not for power, but of autonomy over my life and my time. So often those desires of control is what leads us to handing our lives over to our jobs and the external things around us because we think we are going to gain control in them. It feels more real when you get a paycheck for the work you have done then going inward and being unsure if changes are actually taking place. This is largely where faith comes into play in our lives.

To make 2026 different and to make that difference stick, I am going to start with my environment. I love decorating and creating peaceful, warm, and cozy spaces throughout a home, I know how much environment impacts us daily. This year I am leaning heavily into my faith in a way I haven’t. I am giving God the beginning of my day, something oddly hard for me to do. I have been waking up and going to the office to get in some Bible time and prayer. This is something I have thought about doing but never quite took the plunge consistently because there have always been too many other things to do.

I know that is my flesh fighting back against the truth. I know in my heart that time with the Lord is what brings peace we can’t obtain without, yet I see I have been plagued by busyness. I have been wearing it like a badge of honor, trying to take on anything I possibly can without asking for help and then find myself looking around as I’m half sinking unable to understand why. But I know why…

So, how am I going to create a faith-filled home?

Fist, it has to start with my habits. I have to give God a chance to be a main figure in my life and in doing so it means I have to force myself to do less, depend on him, and trust that everything that needs to get done will in it’s rightful time. I have to give God my time if I want more of my own. I have to give everything back to him that is rightfully his and that includes myself and all my attention.

I can confidently say that I lived the second half of 2025 not depending on God for anything and because of that I actually felt the separation from him and it’s not something I particularly enjoyed. I am going to depend on him to provide my needs instead of mindlessly shopping or gazing around at things that are not even wants - yet have ended up in my home. I will talk more on this in a future post.

I started doing this with my art by following a strong desire to have a verse under or incorporated into every painting I do. That started at the end of 2025 and I am excited to carry that into 2026. It really is a way to bring the Father into everything that I create. Instead of my mind wondering into the future and ruminating about things that have happened in the past I want to get lost in prayer throughout my days and dream with the Lord.

Obedience will have to be the name of the game to create a faith-filled home. Because it isn’t going to be all about the decorations and only about how a space makes you feel, it starts with what God is calling you to and having the obedience to execute it.

I’m not going to stop my routines, planning, or dreaming. But I am going to bring God into everyone of those things, I am going to let him lead the things I do and when. A faith-filled home begins with an invitation for God to come in and do things his way- which no matter how hard it will be for me to fully grasp, will always be the best way.

Because I do love to decorate and as I mentioned I do believe that environment does play a key role in our habits and our livelihood, I also want to simplify. I want to gradually have the walls adorned in my own art that is rooted in scripture, I want to have calm lighting, organization, but less. I just want less to worry about which means less options, less toys, less things on the shelves, and a smaller dinner menu.

Me and the boys live a relatively simple life and it still quickly gets chaotic. So the more I can strip away that doesn’t align with my values and the life I know I am yearning for, I truly know it is time to just let them go. And if you feel similar but are worried about letting things go just remember that it’s just ‘stuff’ and anything you let go or are feeling the need to let go can probably always be had again. Like giving up sugar for a week or for a month, the reminder is that I will be able to have it again just not right now.

The point in clearing out and turning down the noise is to gain the peace that comes without the wishful thinking that we need more.

So this is how I am going to regain more peace, build an even stronger foundation with God, and construct a faith-filled home from the inside out.

I hope you come along with me!

xo,

Jaz