You know that feeling of delight and fulfillment you have after creating something simple for your home? It may be making a home cooked meal, or even gathering tomatoes from your own backyard plant.
It’s that feeling of satisfaction that comes from your own labor. We’re missing that today. The modern homemaker has been duped, and is suffering considerably.
What Our Twenty-First Century Lives Have Stolen
Pilfered, conned or hoodwinked, which ever term you prefer, it has happened to each of us. We have been utterly and hopelessly, fully and completely… robbed. And what has been stolen was precious and life giving.
Centuries ago women would work hard in their homes to provide meals, bedding and clothing for their family. Whether it was grinding grain by hand or spinning fiber to create fabric, women through the ages had no choice but to work at home daily for the sake of their families.
We see their hard lives and can be thankful for our many modern conveniences, but at what cost? Those women were absolutely essential to their homes. There was no confusion. “But what do you do all day at home?” was never a question they had been asked.
The value of a homemaker was understood.
While we have gained absolute convenience, what we’ve lost may not have been such a fantastic tradeoff. Since the industrial revolution, women as a whole have lost a sense of purpose and identity in their basic roles, and received as a by-product anxiety and confusion.
The Confused Homemaker
Most women today will admit they are confused. The working mom wonders if she should spend more time at home with her children. The stay at home mom wonders if she should get a part time job to help her husband with the finances. Another working mom longs to be a full time homemaker but wonders how or when it will ever happen.
And confusion ensues.
If we look to God’s Word, we know that:
- God is not a God of confusion (1 Cor. 14:33)
- We are to trust in the Lord with all our heart; and lean not on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5)
The very simple joys of life that the LORD created for good have nearly vanished, perhaps never to return?
Beginning to Thrive Again
Once we see how we are woefully lacking in the blessings of the fruits of our labor we can decide to turn over a new leaf. Perhaps you can see a glimpse of what I’m implying. It’s a life of fruitful labor unto our LORD and for our families.
It is diligently working in our homes. It is planting a garden, sewing a dress, making cookies from scratch, baking fresh, homemade bread, and having a backyard picnic with your children.
It’s taking the time to handwrite a letter to mail to a friend.
It’s reading stories to the babies on the front porch swing, teaching your children the ways of the LORD, providing hospitality to friends, family and strangers alike, and it’s serving your husband well.
It’s not relying on store bought pizzas or texting as a typical form of communication, and it’s not sitting together as family- each member gazing down at their own iPhone.
The Next Step
If you have caught the heart and the meaning of what I’ve described here, you may be giving me a virtual “Amen sister!” all the while asking, “Now what? Where do I go from here in our modern, fast page age of technology and advancements?”
Begin with what you can. I’ll share a few steps with you:
- Be inspired by reading stories of how pilgrims, pioneers, Vikings, ancient Israelites lived
- Find a few things that spark your interest and your children’s and begin a project
- Learn to prepare simple meals with basic ingredients, all from scratch
- Play chess with your children instead of scanning Facebook while the kids play Xbox
- De-clutter! The homemakers before us had much, much less, as did their children (as an added bonus, your children may not develop those feelings of entitlement many kids and young adults embrace today)
- Raise your own meat, it could be a simple as a few backyard chickens
- Eliminate debt and buy only what you have the cash for, save some too!
- Get your husband involved, this doesn’t have to be just a mom and kid’s project!
- Venture out even more, buy land in the country and build your own home (we did, it can be done!)
- Come up with more ideas on your own, sky’s the limit here!
Your Thoughts?
If you’ve ever thought you would have preferred living in a previous century, or longed for simpler times, you may have had your own thoughts along these lines too. What else can you add or suggest to help other homemakers adopt a slower pace of life, to gain that Godly satisfaction that comes from simple pleasures?
