"I'm in maintenance."
"I'm a secretary."
"I'm a nurse."
"I'm a coal miner."
"I work in fast food."
"I work in retail."
"I'm a therapist."
The list can go on and on but you get my drift. When asked what we do, we define ourselves by our jobs.
This post is going to be more geared toward the women because it's where my heart is. This subject is where my passion is. When asked what I do, I respond, "I'm a homemaker."
Now, before I get too much hate mail or ugly comments, let me share a few things:
1) I warned you I was going to write what God gave me.
2) I'm not putting down any woman who desires to work outside the home and I'm especially not putting down any woman who HAS to work outside the home. Unfortunately we live in a time where life decisions are made that puts us in situations where we truly have no other options.
3) I have worked outside the home myself. So if you think I'm making digs at you, then I must be making them at myself too....get the logic??
I would truly love to see all women be able to stay at home, making their house a peaceful, calm sanctuary for their husbands, their children and all who enter in. One of the greatest compliments I believe a woman can hear is, "I love coming to your house. It is so peaceful here."
I take the Scripture in Titus 2:3-5 to heart. As with all of the Bible, I believe it literally means what it says,
"In the same way, teach older women to be holy in their behavior, not speaking against others or enslaved to too much wine, but teaching what is good. Then they can teach the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be wise and pure, to be good workers at home, to be kind and to yield to their husbands. Then no one will be able to criticize the teaching God gave us." NCV
It may take a few posts to go through this entire passage, but that will be perfectly fine. Before I jump on the homemaker issue, let me address verse 3.
Speaking to these older women......my grandmother tried to teach what a Biblical help meet looked like. What a true homemaker was. My mom tried to as well, but she was born in that generation that was beginning to decide that a woman can do all a man can do and should. She should have a career and the husband should do just as much in the home as she does and the children were just fine having her an hour in the morning and a couple of hours, maybe, at night. That was mom's generation.
My generation decided that not only could we have the career and the husband, but we could always dispose of the career and get a new one and we could dispose of the husband and get a new one if he got in the way of our dreams.
I'm now seeing a generation of girls who, for the most part, doesn't desire to even be a homemaker and hey, doesn't even need to be a wife. The family unit is breaking down and for all intents and purposes today, that's okay. Who needs it anyway?
Hold up!!! News flash!! The women my age ARE the older women now and according to verse 3, we are to be holy in our behavior, not speaking against others, not enslaved to much wine, (a debate I won't get into here. Work that one out between you and God), teaching what is good. Verse 4 goes on to say we are to teach the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be wise, to be pure, to be good workers at home, to be kind, and to yield, submit (yes, I went there) to their husbands.
Question 1: How many women 40 and older do you know that are able, according to those verses, to do what the Bible tells us to do?
Question 2: Are YOU the woman over 40 that can fill that position yourself?
It is my personal belief that there is no greater calling than to be a homemaker. It is my personal belief that God set up the family unit in just that way, the man the head of the home under the leadership of Jesus Christ, the woman a keeper of the home and all that entails under the leadership of her husband. It is also my personal belief that when those things get out of order, you see the family unit suffer and that begins a ripple effect, exactly like what we are living in today.
I believe we, as women, have really lost sight of what God desires us to be and do. I believe that in looking vertically instead of horizontally, we, as women, desire things that will in no way give us pleasure or peace long term and we have bought into the lie that more is better and in order to get more, the family unit suffers.
I am a homemaker. It is my desire to see women, and especially the young women, desire to be homemakers as well. Older women, it's not too late to make a change, if you possibly can, and strive toward the goal of coming home. It is my desire to see a generation of women step up beside their husband and support him as he leads and takes care of his family while she makes their home a haven of rest, peace, comfort and a place he looks forward coming home to at the end of the day.
It is my desire to be that Titus 2 woman and maybe, it is or will become your desire too.
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