If I’ve ever said this before, forgive me. But this may be the best article I’ve ever read on the meaning and importance of the home and family–homemaking, actually.
Profoundly thoughtful for every human (man and woman) and particularly inspiring if you already grasp the essence of home life, you want to go read Tyler Blanski’s In Defense of Domesticity.
Choosing a part to quote was painful–every word is quotable.
“So why do people still hold up the 1950s baking soda advertisement with a smiling woman, hair neatly coiffed, preparing a nutritious meal for her family, and say, “That serene smile is a lie”? In an era of Adbusters and critical thinkers, you’d think someone would hold up the 2015 advertisement with a smiling woman, hair asymmetrical and tapered in the nape, preparing a PowerPoint presentation for her clients, and say, “That serene smile is a lie!”…
Ask any ten people what they live for, and they will say their families. Few will admit that they live for money, or work, or power because it sounds shallow, and it is. So why do popular forms of feminist ideology talk as if living for family is vassalage, and living for a career is freedom?”
9 comments
That was a simply excellent article! Thank you for sharing Kelly.
Excellent! Thank you for sharing this, Kelly.
This article was SO awesome. I have it lined up in my upcoming links post, and I saw “Like Mother, Like Daughter” linking to it too. So much awesomeness in one post. Thank you for linking!!
I was really disappointed by this article. I thought it would build up women who choose to stay at home but all it did was tear apart women who choose to work. Why is it that women can’t work and make a home? I know plenty of women who work and are wonderful homemakers. I also know men who are wonderful homemakers. The proverbs 31 woman had a job outside the home! Men are also called to raise their children. I am a stay at home mom and love it. But forcing a woman to stay home when its not her gift or passion isn’t healthy. I’ve seen marriages fall apart because of it.
Alexa,
There are a couple of errors in your comment. First, it’s a happy thought that everyone only always “builds each other up.” It’s a tragedy, though, when we refuse to acknowledge practices which are damaging and worse, refuse to address them. The author has been brave enough to point out the obvious.
Secondly, he DOES address the need for Dad to be more involved at home. And no, not as a “homemaker” but as a vital part–HIS role in the family and home life. He writes:
“it was a sorry turn when, as a widespread phenomenon, men began to leave their homes to make their living in the city.”
Now for many, that’s a reality they cannot help. Yet, he’s right to make the point that it was harmful on some level, to the family.
And thirdly, the Prov. 31 woman did not “have a job outside the home” parallel to today’s career woman (which is what is being addressed). She was a business woman in every sense but her jobs (creating products **for the merchants to sell**, real estate, etc., allowed her the freedom and mobility to keep her family in a place of priority. Big difference.
Let me be brave enough to point out the obvious: You’re a huge, hypocritical bore. Your family lets you live on their property, and people built you a home after the tornado. You didn’t pay for anything, and you basically live on charity.
Your children are ill-educated. They eat a single chicken breast between them!
I fail to see how you put your family first. You put them last, and your rhetoric first.
Go ahead and delete me, Kelly. You can’t handle the truth. You’re a sad puppet of someone else’s ideas, but the world is changing. You can’t, though. Too rigid.
Donna,
You mentioned that the world is changing. Yes, it has been changing since God Himself created it. The tug of war between evil and Good continues just as it did thousands of years ago. The only difference really is technology because there is no new sin for satan to work with. The enemy is still the same, still uses the same strategies to kill, steal and destroy Gods most cherished creation, us. Everyone in every generation makes the statement of “the world is changing” however they forget or maybe just don’t believe that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. So if God Himself remains the same throughout time (which He also created and lives outside of) than it would make sense that Kelly would not change because of the love she has for Him, an unchanging God. It’s not rigidity. It’s love that stays Kelly’s spirit.
So dear Donna (if that is indeed your name)the disdain that dripped all over your message is quite sad to read and the state of your spirit is where the change must take place. Just remember….the choice you make effects the rest of your own eternity.
Kelly, thank you for not deleting Donna”s venomous comments. Thank you for rising above the dross. Hurting people hurt people and nothing you could have said to her could have made a difference because having been hostile to the Gospel once myself and on a rampage against God honouring women, it took no less than a true conversion experience wrought by the Holy Spirit Himself, to see life through the lens of scripture. Looking back I now see that I was “dead because of my disobedience and my many sins.” Ephesians 2:1. If it’s any comfort please remember that Donna at least read something and a seed has hopefully been planted regardless of the aggression on display. I’m glad someone ignored my hostility again and again and prayed for me. I’m praying for Donna that ” she may come to her senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” 2 Timothy 2:26