honorable homemaking

I mentioned in this post that I am reading Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney. The subtitle is "Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother." She looks at this passage in Titus 2:3-5:

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled,pure,working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

She focuses in on these 7 virtues: loving your husband, loving your children, self-control, purity, working at home, being kind, and being submissive to your husband.

This morning I read about the honor of working at home. It seems that our general culture looks down upon women who choose to stay home, thanks in part to the feminist movement that convinced women that they would be happier, more fulfilled individuals if they worked outside of the home.

Now before I get too far into this conversation let me say that I am in no way seeking to condemn those moms that do work outside of the home. In fact, the author does a great job (in my opinion) of also looking at the Proverbs 31 passage and acknowledging that the "virtuous woman" took care of her home but also traded goods and bought real estate. Working outside of the home is not in and of itself bad. The Proverbs 31 woman managed her work but not to the detriment of managing her home.

For us, we have been willing to make the necessary sacrifices so that I can stay home with the boys. And sometimes it has been a real sacrifice. Remember, my husband is a teacher. That is not exactly a high-paying job (though it should be, and I'm not just saying that because I'm married to one!). And we had 2 boys within 18 months of each other, a major strain on the finances. Some days, I do long for a bigger, nicer house or a gym membership or heck, even medical insurance. I admit that. But then I think of all the sweet moments the Lord has given me in raising these 2 boys and the joy that is brought to my heart to have a clean, organized home for my hard-working husband and all the sacrifices fade away. And really, the Lord has provided (sometimes miraculously) for our every need.

I could go on and on about the joys of being home with my boys but maybe a few pictures from our day today will suffice.

Being a stay at home mom affords me moments like these today:

Eating lunch with great friends

Baking homemade bread with my boys (don't you love the apron and underwear look?)

Celebrating (a little early) our survival of the first week back to school (they are singing into their forks)

She ends the chapter with this prayer: "Lord help me to build the kind of home where all who enter will find it impossible to keep from thinking of God." Isn't that a lofty goal? Lofty but not impossible and it is my prayer for our house to do just that.