It takes time, and a great deal of it, to love oneself and others as only a woman can. This is why God, in His Infinite Wisdom, designates women to be keepers of the home, in today’s word “homemakers”.
To love means to do what’s best, and only best, for someone; to construct the one who is loved rather than destruct. To truly love another, one must truly love herself, she must construct her life rather than destruct it.
True love’s only motivation is to help others find it and thrive in it, to have lives of real, deep meaning, to make our time on earth as pleasant, rich, and righteous as it can be. Most importantly, true love brings one an astoundingly deep understanding of God.
A homemaker has the vast amount of time it takes to construct the members of her family, to build each of them up into thriving, outstanding, dearly loved and loving people. This time to love and nurture is among the greatest blessings God has given women.
A homemaker’s time is hers to manage. However, just because a woman is a homemaker (doesn’t work for money outside of the home) doesn’t mean that she is devoted or loving or makes wise use of her time. Each of us, as homemakers, must choose how we love ourselves and our family members, whether that’s a little or a lot or somewhere in between. We have the time to listen to our husbands and children reveal their hopes, dreams, and thoughts. We have the time to create and explore our own hopes, dreams, and thoughts. We have the time to stop and listen, to give a hug when needed, to chat with, and to really get to know each member of our families. We have the time to guide our children as only their Mommas can, to teach them to thrive, to teach them to love, and to truly love them. We just have to make the time to do so, and no one can do that for any of us but we ourselves, individually.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
A Warning about Time
The Bible warns against being women being busybodies. Busybodied women are as prevalent today as they were when The Bible was written. Being a busybody means that one keeps herself so full of activity outside of her home that her family doesn’t receive the time – the love – it needs and deserves. It is a dereliction of duty on the homemaker’s behalf. To truly love, one must make her family her priority and activities outside of the home like icing on the cake – a nice touch, but not the main substance.
Idly wasting time interacting with others outside of our homes on the computer is another form of being a busybody, but can be more easily interrupted by and scheduled around the needs of our family. It, too, should be looked at as icing on the cake.
Mismanaging time in one’s home is usually rooted in selfishness. Selfishness is nearly the polar opposite of true love, because it is destructive. Selfishness is not proper self-love, it is self-gratification.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Have you ever heard the old saying “Love to a Child is Spelled T-I-M-E”? If you have never experienced it (and many of today’s women may not have), it may be impossible to imagine what having a loving, caring, listening, guiding homemaking mother is like; a wife and mother who is genuinely interested in each of her children and her husband, who understands each of them as only she can, and whose goal it is to know that each of them are thriving. The key to being this type of homemaker, and any woman reading this can achieve this, is taking the time to do this, and again, it takes a lot of time: time to learn, time to apply what is learned, time to develop, and time to refine. But again, God has blessed us with the time to do all of these things, as well as the other things that we need to do in our homes and communities. God has truly blessed the homemaker.
Life is made-up of moments; these moments are among our greatest resources, our greatest tools on earth, to truly love. Take the time to love your husband, your children, and yourself; the impact of this devoted love cannot be underestimated, but can and will be felt as unimaginable blessings for generations to come.
Excellent!! You are right, God has truly blessed the homemaker. I am determined to make every little moment count. Thank you for taking the time to put it all into words.
You are very welcome, Elisabeth, and thank you so much for your kind words.
Great post, but — a woman is only a homemaker if she doesn’t work for money outside of the home? What about if she does a little babysitting to make ends meet? Or has a part-time office job at her church? Or….is a full-time career woman, who comes home and is the one who makes her house a HOME, taking charge of the cooking, cleaning and pleasing her husband?
I guess there are as many definitions of “homemakers” as their are of “Christians” and “feminists.” I believe that all of the definitions of those words should be inclusive rather than exclusive.
For me, it’s like being a mother — I didn’t stop being a mother when I returned to my outside work, and I didn’t stop being a homemaker, either.
Even though I have a full-time outside-the-home career, when I had to fill out my “occupation” for the alumnae directory for my graduate school, I wrote “homemaker.” No matter what else I do, it’s one job I will always have.
Hi L.,
Thank you for reading and sharing your comment. As always, you provide food for thought, and I appreciate that!
I see what you are saying about the word “homemaker”, but I stick with the actual definition, which is “a wife who manages a household while her husband earns the family income” (http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/).
Sincerely,
Nikki