Willing submission to my calling and to my husband is not hard because it is nothing more than submission to my Savior.
And his heart beat while on earth leaves us with the answer to life:
Jesus had all power and authority in Heaven and earth. He COULD do what He wanted to do. He was important, smart and ambitious. But those traits were only utilized for the Kingdom when he submitted to the will of His Father.
Identifying with Christ in this way gives us a confident, freeing starting place. My calling as a helper and comrade to my husband was God’s idea, not man’s.
In Genesis, the dominion mandate was given to a man and his wife. They were to fulfill God’s mission together, like a well-oiled machine.
As a woman given to the calling of keeping my home, helping my husband and raising a family for the glory of God, my heart leaps with joy that I have been entrusted with such a noble task! Yes it’s hard, yes, some days I cry, but the truth of the mission remains.
One of the common stereotypes of biblical womanhood is that she is enslaved at home, receiving orders barked from her husband who is “in charge”.
Contrary to that idea, a woman in a biblical marriage is the “queen” or manager of her home. She is actually the one “in charge” of the numerous duties of keeping a home and her husband is free to be the man God created him to be because “the heart of her husband safely trusts her”. The two are on the same page–same vision–same goals. He doesn’t have to micro-manage her time because he knows she is capable, smart and eager to fulfill their mission.
One of the feminist lies is that a woman can only be truly free in a career outside her home. But the irony is that she still submits to someone (usually another man). What’s worse is that the man to whom she must obey doesn’t love her, doesn’t have her best interests at heart and doesn’t feel any motivation to protect her.
She is given to another’s schedule, another’s agenda and another’s orders. She helps someone else fulfill his goals, convinced she is “free”.
Wouldn’t I rather do this for my husband? If I’m not helping him, doesn’t he then need to find another helper? He gives me much more freedom than any other boss does!
Another stereotype asserts that a keeper at home can’t make money. Hogwash! Let me mention my friend, Jennie, again. She started Sensibility.com years ago and has grown quite a successful business right from home! I think Crystal Paine has figured it out too! In fact, there has never been such opportunity as now for women at home to run successful businesses, helping with the family’s economy.
Education is another misunderstood area. If your domain is the home, especially if you home school, learning takes on a whole new meaning. I have never had such opportunity to read research and study than now, alongside my children!
Many feel sorry for the lack of socialization a stay-at-home mom gets. And admittedly, this can be a challenge. But when the season is right, a woman given to hospitality gets to enjoy the richness of meaningful relationships and discipleship right in her home, where the love of Christ and the aroma of friendship envelopes all those who enter her home. This kind of interaction with others is, I think, a most meaningful and successful form of evangelizing. Whether it’s having families over, or just other women with whom she can share, there is a whole ministry awaiting.
(As a side note, being a “keeper at home” doesn’t mean she can never leave home! Certainly her work requires her to spend the majority of her time there, but she isn’t tied to the washer 😉
In addition to these few things, depending on her season of life, when a woman understands the art in homemaking, the ocean can’t contain the opportunities at her disposal. I have friends who have catering businesses–true food artists,who not only make money but bless others with their gifts. Friends who are photographers, even setting up their own dark rooms, seamstresses who make costumes and sell or display, artists so gifted in crafts they never buy a gift, women who can design, build or remodel a whole house, musicians…the list goes on.
And let me add, I don’t want any women reading to feel underachieved. I certainly don’t want to suggest you have to be some supermom. That is NOT the point of this post! You know my heart. I only want to turn over some of the stereotypes and say to women that being a keeper at home doesn’t mean enslavement and misery.
Far more important than these things is the work she does in teaching her children about the Lord. Right there, given as gifts from heaven, is an army of God being prepared to march out and continue the mission. On the weary days, I try to envision a family gathering when I am old. Hoping to see throngs of people around me, my children with their children with their children–the heritage of the Lord, the fruit of our labor!
Some people can’t fathom *HOME* as anything more than a building with lots of dirty laundry. But it’s so much more!
I want to raise my boys to be men. Real men. Especially now in a world where masculinity is almost vilified and gender is believed to be fluid.