“Lord, what do you want me to do?” “Why am I here Lord?” “I know you have a purpose for my life, so what is it?”  “Do you hear me?”

I was trapped in a maze of ambiguity, disappointment, and loneliness. You see, during this time my friend was sharing with me her life’s direction and seemingly a new insight or opportunity everyday! It sounded so wonderful. I would think, humm, I can do that too! Whatever the “buzz” or trend for that season, I wanted my stake. Needing so much to fit in, I was trying to force it.

Then one day I awaken with the compulsion to discover myself. This was the Lord’s way of answering my prayers. My desire to know Deana and her place became unbearably intense. Settling for status-quo wasn’t an option. The emotional roller-coaster was wearing on me. Determined to defy even a wisp of depression, I surrendered every square-foot of my heart to acknowledge God’s design course for me. Growing jaded by hearing of other’s victories, I declared, “What’s for me is for me and I’m going to find it!” I began with a conscious assessment of my inner landscape. Within me was a special drawing pulling me onward. My discovery didn’t happen overnight, of course.

Just like designing a space, it was a process.

Are you seeking to know the real you? Do you sometimes question where your place is? I can help you. Here’s a blueprint to self-discovery I use in my “life design” journey. To make it fun and real, I’ll apply comparable interior design jargon I use with my students:

Purpose to know your space: Knowing your space identifies how to use it. Know that you must use God’s word to identify his exceeding great and precious promises. Purpose to trust him. His Spirit occupies the space of your heart; therefore, believe that he directs your steps as he promised in Psalm 37:23. During this process, he may impress upon your spirit to initiate a specific action. Partake of his divine nature as you take what you hear from him and act in faith until fresh clarity comes.

Assess your style and taste: What appeals to you generally identifies your taste and style. We can relate this to the cliché, “Follow your passion.” My passion assessment didn’t lead me to self-discovery. My gifting did. There’s a gift in you. Your responsibility is to stir it up. (1 Timothy 1:6). He will give you ideas that correspond with your gift. God promises that your gift makes room for you, not your passion. (Proverbs 18:16)

Create a furniture plan: A furniture plan helps the performance of functionality. To function within the scope of your gift, write a plan or a vision for your life. A room design calls for several furniture pieces not necessarily placed all at once. And sometimes it is necessary to make adjustments to the room’s layout for improving its appearance. Your life design comes with many gifts not revealed all at once. The vision outlines the performance of functionality of your gifts. Make room in your vision for adjustments and for God’s intervention. Situations and interruptions may well arise. Nevertheless, the vision is yet for an appointed time. God promises if you clearly write the vision and wait, though it tarries it will surely come. (Habakkuk 2:2-3)

Build your room, layer your décor: There is an orderly progression to achieving a distinctive, pleasing and satisfactory room décor. In developing your best life design, embrace the process of building a relationship with you. Get to know and understand you. Like yourself. Accept yourself. Love you. Your distinctive qualities represent your value. And the values within you indicate a specific inner décor for crafting your vision. So what do you do? Layer your inner décor with a mind renewal (Romans 12:2); creative self-talk (I am, I can, I will—Mark 11:23); forgiveness—the crucial one (Matthew 18:21); and love—the required one (1 Corinthians 13:8).

Combining color and light levels: Color and light distribution adds personality to a space. I like to call it the power network. Hence, opt to incorporate a network of personas then distribute them by coloring and brightening the lives of others. Encouraging, serving, praying for, submitting to, fellowshipping with, ministering to and sharing your grace and wisdom with others, illuminates their mind, impacts their spirit, brings you joy and refines your character. (Colossians 3:16)

Avoiding chaos and eliminating clutter: This helps you to resist the urge to clutter surfaces and indulge in all sorts of inner and visual fuss. Learning to run with the vision involves protection against all disorder together with being physically and mentally fit. Designing your best life sends a resounding message that exercise and good nourishment is necessary for optimum productivity. Keep the mind sharp and healthy. Complement life with cardiovascular exercise, good books, wholesome relationships and hearty dialogue. God wants your inner design strong, healthy and fit because it affects your external state. (Romans 12:1-2)

Know this. You don’t have to emulate anyone else for acceptance. Neither should you seek people’s approval. There’s nothing wrong with not knowing what to do. You need the word and prayer to become part of who you are—part of your spiritual DNA—the real you, so that they can influence and direct all aspects of your life. Make it your blueprint for your self-discovery to designing your best life.

A place of greatness is within you.
Never give up!

Thank you for reading my post today. I appreciate your comments.

Sharing my Passion,

Deana

©2011 All Rights Reserved
Award winning author and transformational speaker Deana Murphy
Deana passionately supports the success of women helping them to
design their best life. Creator and visionary of the LivingDesigns™
brand, Deana is the expert on life design and your Go-to-Resource 
for promoting empowering life makeovers, whether you seek one-on-one
consulting, group trainings, educational workshops or live lifestyle
makeover events. Visit Deana at deanamurphyglobal.com and
designingfortheking.com.

Most often at the onset of the spring and summer months with winter being behind, people generally are geared-up to get in the creative mode. The beginning of a new season in some way incites creativity and motivation for change. Included with the desire to change may arise enhancing our lives; more outside activities and the best vacation spots. Much the same comes about for the home. Refreshing and renewing worn places ranks high on our to-do list.  For many of us, we seek to get our home in order and finally decorate those neglected and tough to tackle areas.

Ready for a Change!

When I think about changing my home environment it reminds me of how Jesus changed the darkened, hidden places of my being into a ray of light and hope. With a renewed mindset and beaming anticipation I knew He had a purpose for my life. I was ready for a change. Venturing into a home make-over, whether one room or the entire home, can produce this same optimism. But before you jet out to the store to make your purchases, prepare your mind for the change. Consider what you want your home to accomplish for you. More importantly, how can your home design unify your family? Do you want it to remind you of the warmth and security of your home as a child? Or would you like it to help cancel the pain of the past? What about a design that will accommodate every family member’s desires and needs?

Too often we acclimatize lifestyles and living at home to the layout and features of the home. Imagine how our lives would be if God didn’t first re-arrange the universe. He designed His world in His majestic display of power with purpose. The same holds true for every design or decorating endeavor we undertake. Design changes should spring forth out of a renewed mindset. I’m not only talking about designing to appeal to forms and aesthetics. And I’m certainly not referring to making changes because your best friend or neighbor’s home is outdoing yours. That’s not the right mindset, that’s meddling. Creating the right home design mindset means to have a plan.

Design a Plan

Looking back over Scripture it is apparent that God did nothing without a plan. From the design of the world in Genesis to the soon and coming King in Revelation, His plan has always been wooing His people to Himself. It didn’t matter how impossible the darken world looked, God had a plan for the design of His world. He knew exactly what He wanted His design to do for Him and His family. This says to me that we must do no less when designing our home. Let’s consider the gathering or family room for example. This room generally serves as a multi-purpose area where we relax and entertain, play and work, or watch TV, read and do homework. But we certainly can’t engage all these activities simultaneously. And someone has to plan the room’s layout and décor for incorporating these activities. Then the schedule must be planned.

Meeting of the Minds

Actually the way you live at home determines how you should plan your design. If relationships are centered in your heart, then making a place that unifies the family and connects family with friends is one way to define the purpose of the home. Perhaps working from home defines a major purpose for redesigning the home. Evaluate the use of each space. I often advise my clients to have a design meeting with their families. In this meeting discuss what is important to each household member, write it down, and be willing to compromise and be flexible when possible. While function is a major consideration in the design process; what’s paramount is the emotional and spiritual well-being of the entire household. Here are a few suggestions to discuss in the design meeting:

Objection

• What is the main purpose for making design changes? More space? Ab better lay-out? New purchase? Reworking some existing things? Insulation to stifle the sound of drum practice or electric games?

• Do you want your home to reflect your spiritual life? If so, what would you need to do to be ready to reflect this? Would it be more patience with each other? Like-mindedness with your spouse? Unselfishness?

• Does your lifestyle define how you live at home? What functions must be performed for each room?

Editing

• Walking through the home and carefully looking at each room, what do you see that needs to be done?
• What do you see that needs to be removed? What isn’t needed that can be donated or just simply thrown away?
• Are there any hard places in your heart needing editing? What about spurts of anger over something simple as tidying up behind someone or taking out the trash?

Ambiance

• What kind of atmosphere do you want? Do you want it to be peaceful? energetic? restful? loving?
• What kind of atmosphere can you create that will sustain His Presence?
• Atmosphere is very important to the Lord. Remember that He transformed space  to separate the waters so He could design an atmosphere called heaven.
• How is the atmosphere of your heart? Does it need renovating? Only a touch-up?Do you have the right spirit in your heart? What about your attitude?

• What style, objects and activities will be pleasing to the Holy Spirit? Everything that looks good may not necessarily be sanctioned by God.

Bringing Order

• How can you arrange your activities to undermine any negative habits and keep the home in order.

• Assess your needs for bringing clarity to what to do with what you have.
• Which spaces can you use in nontraditional ways if functional issues arise?
• In what ways can you adjust and show more love and respect for each other?

Sentiments

• How can you incorporate past places of influence into the design?
• How can you incorporate those pleasant childhood memories into the design?
• How can you incorporate priceless family traditions into the design?

Cultural

• Are there any cultural influences and can it be included?
• Talk about your differences and how to effectively translate them into the design.

Preferences

• What are your likes and dislikes?
• What are your individual interests?

Bonding

• When and where is family time together? It maybe as simple as sitting around the table sharing your day.
• Remember children are people too. Don’t make the design so important that they aren’t allowed to enjoy it.

Differences

• Discuss personalities, values, and memories. This carries a high price in keeping peace at home.

Improvements

• What changes will benefit everyone and fortify the family?
• What are some practical ways to improve on what you have?
• How can you better designate the existing spaces to meet your family’s needs?

These lists are not all inclusive, but know how vital it is to do this. So much time is used when planning activities to entertain friends, but planning the details with the right mindset for living at home is oftentimes overlooked. When you think about it, you spend more time in your home than any other place, which makes home design the most influential art form. In view of that, home is an important part of health, spiritual and well-being of your family.

Making changes in our lives and homes is essential and always necessary. I challenge you to begin this spring/summer season with the approach of looking at home design from a different perspective. Yes you are eager to finally decorate those neglected and tough to tackle areas. You’re longing for a fresh start. But be mindful of your family’s needs, surrender any selfish ways of doing things. Renovating allows for a fresh start. Renovate your heart of those hidden attitudes so that His plan and creativity can rise up within you. Your home is a good gift. Design it with the right home design mindset.

I always enjoy reading your comments and thanks for reading my posts.

Sharing my Passion,

Deana

©2010 Deana Murphy. All rights Reserved. You may reprint this article
in its entirety with author's contact and bio information.
Deana Murphy is a dynamic speaker, award winning author and

a conscious home and lifestyle expert who has been helping

people for years design a home they love, transform their lifestyle,

and approach life’s design in view of Spirit and family relations.

She has been interviewed for O at Home Magazine, Empowering Everyday Women,

Spectacular Homes, SORMAG, and Meredith publications to name a few.

She has also appeared on HGTV and Fine Living.