Some Encouragement For Keepers At Home

“I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.” I Timothy 5:14

Although the above verse is in a passage that is speaking of widows, it certainly can be applied to those young women who have not yet married. Reading it this morning reminded me of the need to encourage mothers who are busily caring for their homes. Can I say this right here? It grieves me tremendously to witness the lack of encouragement and support given to women who have chosen the less-travelled path of being a keeper-at-home.

From my own experience – long before I was married, my heart’s desire was to be “just a wife and mom”. More than anything else, I longed to be a homemaker. It’s been over 35 years now since the Lord began to give me my heart’s desire. At the time, I guess it had never entered my mind that not everyone else felt as I did. I can remember in our early years of marriage when folks would ask me if I worked. My response at that time was something like, “No, I stay at home”. There were a few who would, on occasion, ask me – “When are you going to get a job?”  This did not just come from strangers or unsaved family and friends. Often, it was individuals in our own church family who felt the need to ask. As a young wife, I can remember dreading these times and would often answer with a feeling of shame. It wasn’t until I began reading my Bible regularly and started coming across verses such as the above that I realized something. The desires that the Lord had put in my heart were God-given…and nothing to be ashamed of!

Thirty-five years later, I am seeing the questioning of young housewives continue. Thirty-five years later, I am witnessing young wives and mothers being encouraged and even pressured to “get a job”. I could understand if this pressure was only coming from the unsaved world. One of Satan’s desires is to destroy families and one way he accomplishes this is by bringing division into the home. But, I believe it’s a very sad day we are living in when the church becomes that place of discouragement, pressure and even temptation for homemakers to leave the home, place their young children in daycare and seek outside employment. At the very least, their motives should be questioned.

If a young lady has chosen to “guide the house”, as the above verse describes, shouldn’t the church…above any place else…be supportive of that decision?  Shouldn’t God’s people seek to encourage our young wives and mothers in this biblical role? (I am not talking about those who shirk their duties at home while they – as the girls and I joke – lay in bed and eat “bonbons”. 🙂 ) Being a keeper-at-home is a job…a 24/7 job with no time card to “punch out”. Being a keeper-at-home includes being a cook, janitor, laundry-washer, taxi-driver, meal-planner, teacher, clearance-deal-finder, counsellor, nurse, referee, seamstress, home-decorator, barber, painter, consoler, grocery-store-shopper, closet-cleaner, furniture-mover, diaper-changer, baby-bath-giver, childcare giver,  etc….and should be, above all, a prayer warrior. I’m sure many of you can add to this list.

This morning, I took the time to look up some comments on the verse at the beginning of this post. From “The Biblical Illustrator”:

True womanly service: — Most heartily do we go with Mrs. Fawcett’s remarks upon the industrial and professional employment of women, in connection with which she said that a woman with a family, which she brought up well, was doing as great a work, economically and socially, as any person was capable of performing. Scores of mothers, whose sphere of activity is bounded by the walls of their home, and who sometimes deplore their inability to engage in outside work, may take heart on being reminded of this most certain truth. To train a family of children in the fear of God, and the best habits of feeling and conduct, is as precious a work as any that is done under the sun, exercises the very highest qualities of love, patience, and self-denial, and will be recognized on high as the truest service of Christ. (S. S. Chronicle.)

And another quote from “The Biblical Illustrator”:

A Christian mother: — Nearly forty years ago in the South of England there was an earnest minister of Christ, whose duties often called him from home. He had a large family, and he feared sometimes he was paying them but little attention because of his many obligations outside. One day he was about to start on a journey, and he stood at the door half-way downstairs, and he heard a voice in prayer. It was the voice of his wife. He listened, and she was praying for the children by name, and when she came to one name, Charles, she said, “Lord, he has a daring spirit; whether for good or for evil, make it Thine own.” And the minister, as he wiped away a tear said, “It is all right; I can go and serve the Lord; it is right with the children”; and that Charles for whom prayer was offered is the beloved brother whom we listened to in St. Andrew’s Hall yesterday — Charles Spurgeon. Who will say that that mother is not a Christian worker? She toiled in her own home, and laboured for her own children; and if there are mothers here I would say, “Go, and do likewise.”

Can I say “AMEN” right here??

If you are a keeper-at-home, may you be encouraged this morning to keep on keeping on! It may seem as if all you do is give, give, give of yourself. For this reason, a homemaker must have a servant’s heart if she is to be happy in her role.

“He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD. ” Psalm 113:9

The position you have chosen may not have immediate rewards, but press on….be faithful to what the Lord has called you to do. Be faithful to love your husband. Be faithful to love your children. Be faithful to grow in the Lord and teach your children as God teaches you. And one day, you will reap the blessings from your labor.

“The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”  Titus 2:3-5 

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Galatians 6:9

“Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.”  Proverbs 31:25