I think, due to my upbringing (my stay-at-home mom, stay-at-home mother-in-law, stay-at-home grandmas...) I have no problem encouraging women to joyfully embrace doing work at home. Other ladies, however, who have had to work, became concerned and a little bit defensive with that idea.
This gets me thinking. And when that happens, I can't stop thinking. What does it mean to be a homemaker anyway? Does it specifically mean you can't work, ever? Shouldn't Christian women enjoy working at home? Is that an anti-feminist statement? Do I care if that's an anti-feminist statement?
And then I got to the BIG question. What does God think about homemaking? What does He want me to do?
There have been several times in the past when I have searched God's Word vigorously for the answer to that question. What does God want me to do? Funny thing is, God's Word isn't as specific as we'd like it to be. It doesn't have the name of what college you are supposed to attend, what guy you are supposed to marry, how many kids you should have, or whether you should home school.
His Word is super specific about our hearts, though- that we should be humble before Him and others, that we should love Him with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength, that we should love others and put them before ourselves. Other than that, there is SO MUCH freedom in Christ!
The Word does give us some guidelines about wives and mothers working at home. And those guidelines are found in Proverbs 31:10-31.
Over the next several days (weeks, months??) we are going to go through this passage, verse-by-verse, looking at what a Homemaker's Heart looks like. I'll also throw some practical tips and links in there as well.
I hope you'll join me. I will do my best to make it more fun than running the vacuum cleaner : )
Feminine Appeal? I don't think I had much of a problem with what she was saying, as how she was saying it. Even though most of what we she said was based on Biblical truth, It just seemed a little harsh in some places. I've read other books that said basically the same thing, but this one just left a bad taste in my mouth for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI think as a mother there is no clear answer! If you have to work due to money issues, or because you want to work, you are condemded for letting "someone else raise your child," but if you stay home it is hard because you aren't bringing in income and the number one question besides, "what's your name," is "what do you do?" I think as a mother, you always feel guilty!
ReplyDeleteMy mother was a stay at home mom, and she encouraged all three of her daughters to work outside the home because she didn't feel fulfilled. I think you are right, and you just have to follow what is in YOUR heart, even if people don't agree with it...and no matter what you do people won't.
I think it is crucial that we remember that our ultimate purpose and true fulfillment is found in Christ.
ReplyDeleteIf we focus too much on our worth coming from what we do or what kind of house we have or how good we are at whatever- we will be left empty.
Our main goal should be to love Christ and to serve as He did- withholding nothing. Sometimes service looks like being a stay-at-home mom, sometimes it means working outside the home. We'll look more into that later : )