Perhaps homemaking is not an insignificant occupation after all.

Home. The place where families dwell. A place of rest. A place of work. A place that’s safe. A place of growth and learning. A place where minds are shaped and disciplined. A place of sharing. A place of serving. A place where creativity can run wild. A place where God can be worshiped. A place of discipleship. A place of repenting of sin and trying again. A place of ministry. A place of hospitality. A place of loving your people that God gave to you.

This is what home is meant to be. 

But, when the people are gone from the home, we miss getting to practice what a home is meant to be. Homemakers really do shape the environment of the home, which affects the family, which affects the church and which affects the culture. Why have we looked at it with disgust? The enemy of our souls loves to lie to us, and sadly, we listen. 

My heart aches as I hear of all the women who are now forced to be home, with their own children and husbands, and they are stressed. They don’t like it and everyone is unhappy. 

Perhaps everyone is getting a glimpse that homemaking is not an insignificant occupation after all. Homemaking is an art and it is needed for healthy homes and families. If you find that, homeschooling is stretching your brain to a breaking point, grabbing a pizza is not an option, house cleaning just got more intense, and your children need more attention than popping YouTube into their hands, hey sister, you’ve just been given a new exciting challenge. A challenge that is beyond you, that’s why you will need Jesus. 

See, the feminists have shouted their rhetoric for years that homemaking is a drudge. They have made it out to be useless, unchallenging and demeaning to women. Get out in the real world they said, where you can do something exciting and significant and of value. 

But they are wrong. Without a homemaker, home can become a nightmare place to be in and maybe right now God is giving everyone a glimpse of that. If you find that being at home on a regular basis with your family is devastating to you, you are to be blamed. God has specifically given the role of homemaker to women. If our homes are boring, if they are uncreative, if they are inhospitable, if husbands don’t enjoy coming to them, if children dread to spend all day there, we are doing something wrong. 

This is not an unchallenging job. It is work and it is highly significant. 

It can only be done by clinging to Jesus and looking to the Lord for strength to make our homes places where God is worshiped, love is practiced, discipleship happens and families flourish. The old handmade wood table that stood in the middle of our home holds lots of memories for me. It was at that table, bread was kneaded, math was learned, candles were blown out, discussion of God was heard, prayers were given, creating was done, hot simple meals were served, smiles and tears were seen, but gathering together was done through hard and easy and it will never be forgotten. This is the blessing of home and family. 

Ladies, don’t push away from it because it’s hard. It wasn’t meant to be easy. All that is good and right doesn’t come without struggle. 

I would like to encourage all the moms out there that have been suddenly thrust into this homemaking role. Use this time to seek the Lord, study up on biblical motherhood and femininity, and set your self to learn. If you fail, try again, and again. Whatever you learn, teach it to your children and they will love it. Learn how to make meals from scratch. It’s fun and exciting! Learn new skills. Learn to make bread. Plant a garden or flowers. Bake a pie. Get some chickens for eggs. Learn how to make pickles. Sew a pillow. Make a quilt. Knit a hat or sweater for your baby. Deep clean. Paint a room. Rearrange the furniture. Bring in flowers from outside. Declutter. Get rid of junk. Make your place a cozy, inviting, restful environment that your people want to linger in and share laughs. Give your children the tools to also be creative and grow their brains. 

You get to shape your children’s minds. You get to teach them what you want them to learn and not what a stranger wants them to learn. You get to disciple them, train them, discipline them, challenge them in the Gospel. You get to show them repentance and faith in Christ alone by example.

These are huge, significant, valuable works that God is pleased with. 

So take heart, this time and Covid19 could be a blessing from God in disguise. Maybe, just maybe, He wants to turn our hearts back to our homes, our husbands and our children.