"Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people." Colossians 3:23
Sometimes I get stuck in a rut and wonder if the daily chores and daily routine are leading anywhere? Another meal cooked...another sink of dishes....more laundry….bills to pay….groceries to put away and a pantry to organize....changing out the children’s clothes for the new season, storing away and shopping for new clothes....bath time and messes...the baby nursing every few hours at night. It’s not glamourous. It’s fatiguing to the bones. But the Holy Spirit reminds me---these are signs of lives being built. Lives cannot be built and supported without the basics of daily stepping stones, the small bricks laying the foundation. “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin…” Zechariah 4:10
These daily chores are the small beginnings. They are offerings to God. He needs workers for His harvest, he needs mothers determined to pursue His holiness. He needs holy mothers, mothers set apart unto Him. He needs homemakers to willingly work for Him. He is our employer! "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. John 14:3
Jesus goes to prepare a place for us, a heavenly home. He cares about us and preparing this heavenly home for us so much that He died for this. He died to himself and served. We die to ourselves in our homemaking, our desires are laid at His feet...Lord make something of me….wash my heart clean and pure as I wash these dishes. Watch over this home as I clean it, praying as we work for those we love. We need to make a home as unto the Lord, a place He dwells, as He waits to call us to our heavenly home where he HAS prepared a home for us. In our quiet homemaking He cares for us, He hears our prayers, He sanctifies us and grows us into holiness. “Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before.” 1 Thessalonians 4:11
In a world that seems increasingly evil, where a quiet life is out of style and where worries abound, homemakers are one of societies warriors. A Godly home is a weapon of force against the enemy. This is why he seeks to tear down homes and children and the family as God intended. A God fearing family has a strong foundation and the children who are discipled and cared for are righteous warriors for God in a wicked world. God needs parents willing to do the hard work, to lay themselves down, so the next generation has shining lights who have not lost their salt. This world needs great people who are discerning, who are able to stand against evil, who value purity and living biblically. People who value the path of righteousness, the narrow way so much they are willing to devote their lives to this way of life...to Christ.
Homemaking, the work society deems trivial, it is a weapon of good for the kingdom of God. We are building homes upon the rock, homes that will last until we reach our eternal home. When homes are broken down and everyone is scattered to their own activities, their own tv’s and computers and there are no mother’s and father’s hearts abiding at home, children have little foundation….the world and it’s values become their foundation. They have little discipling, training, they have no true witnesses for Christ.
Homemaking is a witness, a purifier of hearts, a witness for Christ to our dear loved ones and to the world, a force to be reckoned with, a force for great good in these trying times. Mother’s fight on the homefront with their homemaking, love, prayers, quiet heart, and dishwashing. They fight with their lives, devotion to family, prayers and their own growth in Christ and pursuit of Christian maturity. Christ was a living example to His disciples and they believed and devoted their very lives to Him. Mother’s need to be a living, albeit imperfect example, leading their children to Christ. Just as the disciples remembered His living example, our children will remember ours. A life, a legacy is built from the cleaning, cooking, baths, fusses, dishes, laundry, the footprints, dirt and projects.
Jesus lived the daily walk with His disciples and with those He healed and served. He knew weariness, he knew toil, he knew pain. He understands. Homemaking and all it entails is set apart work for God. It is a good work. Homemaking serves our Savior and helps to build up the kingdom of God.
“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” Galations 6:9
“No occupation in this world is more trying to soul and body than the care of young children. What patience and wisdom, skill and unlimited love it calls for. God gave the work to mothers and furnished them for it, and they cannot shirk it and be guiltless.” Isabella Macdonald Alden
“I believe that a godly home is a foretaste of heaven. Our homes, imperfect as they are, must be a haven from the chaos outside. They should be a reflection of our eternal home, where troubled souls find peace, weary hearts find rest, hungry bodies find refreshment, lonely pilgrims find communion, and wounded spirits find compassion.” Jani Ortlund
I'm only a housewife, I'm afraid." How often do we hear this shocking admission. I'm afraid when I hear it I feel very angry indeed. Only a housewife: only a practitioner of one of the two most noble professions (the other one is that of a farmer); only the mistress of a huge battery of high and varied skills and custodian of civilization itself. Only a typist, perhaps! Only a company director, or a nuclear physicist; only a barrister; only the President! When a woman says she is a housewife she should say it with the utmost pride, for there is nothing higher on this planet to which she could aspire.”
― John Seymour "Forgotten Household Crafts"
