Home-Sweet-Home

Proverbs 14:1- “The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down.”

Proverbs 24:3-4- “By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.”

Proverbs 31:27- “She looks well to the way of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.”

Titus 2:3-5- “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands so that the word of God may not be reviled.”

Like the instruction in Titus 2 said, women are to teach one another how to take care of their homes. So, if you need help, go get it. Ask for it. Whether that assistance comes from your mom or someone else, seek help in this vital area of being a woman after God’s own heart.

“Let me encourage each of you to embrace your mother’s domestic teaching. Allow her to probe your heart and direct your affection toward the home. And take it one step further. Appoint yourself as your mom’s homemaking assistant. In addition to your assigned chores, be on the lookout for practical ways you can shoulder more of her homemaking responsibilities. In doing so, you will not only receive vital training for your future mission, but you will honor God by expressing your femininity today.” –Carolyn Mahaney

In conclusion, let me leave you with these words from John Angell James:

“My young friends, let your constant aim, and at the same time your earnest prayer, that your may first of all understand your mission, and then fully prepare for it, and hereafter as successfully fulfill it.”

Becoming Keeper's of The Home

“Girls often spend years of intensive study for other professions and yet are completely unprepared to assume the career of homemaking. Young women tend to assume that homemaking doesn’t require any advanced skills or preparation. It’s similar to what a sixth grader might think about a test concerning sixth grade material: What’s there to study? But the truth is that homemaking involves so much more than just cleaning a house. The commands to love, follow, and help a husband, to raise children for the glory of God, and to manage a home encompasses a vast responsibility. Homemaking requires an extremely diverse array of skills—everything from management abilities, to knowledge of health and nutrition, to interior decorating capabilities, to childhood maker, then you must study these subjects and many more. For the majority of you who may be married someday, you will be called to support a husband and together to lead and train your children in godliness. And your home is to be a place from which the gospel goes forth. So homemaking is a career that demands considerable expertise, may encompass decades of our lives, and has the potential to spread the gospel to our families, churches, and communities, and future generations. Now that’s a career preparing for, wouldn’t you say?” -Carolyn Mahaney

Girls, now is the time to take action! Learning to become a keeper of the home will not happen over night. So let’s consider some ways we can:

1. Ask your mom to help you. In fact, there is instruction in scripture out of Titus 2 that older women (your mom) are to train up the younger women (us), and our job as daughters is to receive their training and apply it to our lives.

2. Ask how you can help your mom? What are things she’s needing help with around the house (apart from your normal household chores)? Dinner prep, vacuuming, dusting, laundry? Help with your little siblings? Ask her if you can take on more tasks around the house! Don’t wait for her to ask you! Does she constantly have to be on your case about the state of your bedroom? If so, let me encourage you to plan some time every day to tidy it up! Over many years it has become a joy to help my mom with daily tasks. Anything from cooking with her to organizing/decorating an entire room. These are wonderful times to talk about anything!

Of course it is not wrong to study for another career, in addition to preparing for homemaking. However, the point is that we must not pursue another career to the neglect of training to be a homemaker. God has called us to be keepers of the home.

There's No Place Like Home

My mom is a homemaker. I’ve grown up with a living model of someone who utilizes all her gifts and energy to create a home and care for her husband and children. Through scripture, many conversations, and helpful books, mom has helped me to see the noble calling of a homemaker and it’s affect on the world.

Dorothy Patterson elaborates, “Homemaking, if pursued with energy, imagination, and skills, has as much challenge and opportunity, success and failure, growth and expansion, perks and incentives, as any corporation, plus something no other position offers—working for people you love most and want to please the most!”

Through my mother’s example and training, I’ve caught a vision of the importance of my future mission. I know that whether or not I get married or have children, and no matter what other tasks the Lord might have for me, I want to fulfill my biblical calling of being a “keeper of the home.”

Are you catching God’s vision for you? Do you see the value of learning to care about the place where you live? Of learning to do what it takes to care for the place where you live? Take an inventory of your own heart attitude toward that precious place you call home. If you couldn’t care less about the looks of your special place, ask God to perform open-heart surgery in you. Ask Him to open it up and give you a heart that cares.

“I want to warn you that the world will not applaud you. Or worse, they may look down on you or criticize you. I guarantee you there won’t be awards given out for homemakers—at least not in this world. And we probably won’t see the effect right away. But our influence will surely outlast our lives.” –Nicole Whitcre

You don’t have to wait for a future day or time to get started on your mission. Tomorrow we’ll look at some ways to get started.

Today, why don’t you take some time to read through Proverbs 31:10-31 and maybe take some time after to talk about what you read with your mom? I’m sure she is ready and willing to talk! Keep in mind that this passage is not just directed to married women. There are many ways it applies to us!

Future Homemakers

I’m so sorry for my lack of posting last week. This is a very busy season for me. I will try my best to do better this week. Keep checking back. My heart is still eager and willing to serve you girls through this blog. I’m continually grateful for all your friendships.

Over the next couple weeks I’m going to share some thoughts on homemaking. To kick things off, here is a story by Nicole Whitacre out of the book, “girl talk” and a little of my story…

“As a young woman, I often lay in bed at night and wondered about my future. I stared hard into the darkness, as if God had put the answers there. I had a longing to do great things for God. I imagined myself as a missionary in another country, maybe even a nurse, (I assumed my tendency to faint at the sight of blood would not be a problem.) I had visions of speaking to crowds of women, leading many to the gospel. What I didn’t yet understand was that God’s plan for me was greater than what my imagination could compare up. It was also very different than what I thought."

How about you? What are your dreams and aspirations for your future? How do you answer the well-meaning adults who ask about your plans after high school?

I know while I was in high school I would have never imagined that I would be where I am today. (My plan) was graduating and going to school to be an interior decorator, getting married, having kids, and living happily ever after. (God’s plan) was putting the school to rest so I could serve my parents by working for them. No, that wasn’t necessarily what I “planned” but God, in His goodness, already had a plan that far exceeded mine. There have been many challenging obstacles to walk through, but I can say time and time again that God has been faithful through them all, and I am incredibly grateful for every difficult circumstance the Lord has placed in my life. Even though there have been many hardships (and LOTS of tears) to walk through along the way, each of those circumstances have been for my good and God’s glory. I wouldn’t go back and change a thing! I have lots of anticipation for what my future holds, but God has been merciful to teach me not to dwell or become anxious about my future, but to surrender it into His loving hands because He already has mapped out every single step. He’s taught me that He has many good things in store and that they will come in His perfect timing!

It may surprise you to know that God in the Bible has already given you a sneak peak into your future. As woman, we are all appointed to be keepers of the home (Proverbs 31:10-31; 1 Timothy 5:14; Titus 2:5). Someday you may be called to love a husband and bring up children and make a home for them. While you may pursue many other God-honoring tasks of occupations throughout your lifetime, you are also called to be a homemaker.

Check back tomorrow for more!