The Sacredness of Home

Lady in Pink

by Alfred Leopold Stevens,  1823-1906, Belgium and France

from allposters.

     Although I am not linking up to Pink Saturday, I wanted to share something pink here today. This is a wooden sign that came from the dollar store, which I painted pink with some craft paints.  It could be made from cardstock, too, and hung with wired ribbon in a pleasing spot in your home.  Lillibeth has written a pertinent post on pink here. You can click the "thank you" button on her blog to respond, since she does not have comments.

     Happiness at home is largely dependent upon the belief that the home and family is a sacred institution established by God in the beginning when he created human beings. That belief will elevate the importance of the home and its functions, so that the homemaker can regulate the atmosphere. It is her duty to guard the home (Titus 2, verses 2-5), and in doing so, she must keep out the things that run down the purpose of the home and the members of the family.  She must not allow sardonic, sarcastic and flippant remarks from those who would trivialize the home.  It is not funny to characterize the parents as ignorant old fogeys who are stuck in the dark ages, and it is not right to ridicule their efforts to homeschool their children. 

    The home is serious business, and homemakers are accountable to God for the way they conduct the matters of the house.  They should not brook mocking comments or complaints about housework.  They can either ignore the remarks or they can call people to task for them, whichever they think their nerves can handle.

     Home is a blessed place, also, and everyone should be grateful to be there. It is not just a stop-over while on the way to do "something else" or something better. Being happy at home is the "ultimate result of all ambition."(Samuel Johnson, author of the 19th century English Dictionary.)  

     Demoralization is a tool of the devil, used to distract people from whatever is good, pure and lovely (Philippians 4:8). It is part of cynicism and skepticism, which I have written about before, and as such, should not be an invited guest in the home.  Teach your children well: when they make flippant remarks that devaluate the importance of the home, the homemaker, the parents, the family or make fun of well-loved traditions and beautiful sentiments, bring it to their attention that their sarcasm is helping to tear down the foundations that are giving them the best start in life.

     Demoralization is an effort to discourage someone and make them feel worthless.  The enemies of freedom know that the easiest way to defeat a country is to first demoralize them. A demoralized person is not capable of assimilating facts or distinguishing between truth and lies, no matter how much evidence he has before him.  It is important therefore, to understand the deep dangers of such a tactic and not ignore it when it enters the home. It should be disciplined as though it were a naughty child.

     Home is a place that is not dictated by the world's celebrations and observations. You can make any day a special day by declaring it so. I agree with this lass here, who has a special holiday marked on her calender to celebrate something lovely. In my home, I make up whatever day I want it to be. Today there were some violets peeking up from the root of a tree, and, remembering Peter Marshall's statement in his sermon "Keepers of the Springs," about the "the wistful fragrance of violets, "  I declared today to be the Wistful Day of Violets and am contendedly looking at some of them in an orphan tea cup saucer with a violet pattern.

     Another blog that is a delight is  this one, where a girl after my own heart makes costumes and wears them to historic house museums to get a sense of what it must have felt like to live there and use the old telephone and the old rocking chair and look through the windows onto the gardens.  I've done things on a smaller scale in my own home, dressing up and serving tea to just my little ones and enjoying every minute of it.

   There are those who think that our machinery (washers, dryers, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners) make housework so fast and easy that we need not stay home all day. To that I would like to say that if you have so much free time at home due to all this wonderful machinery, it does not mean that you should go out to seek work outside the home, or get a job for wages.  It is marvelous to have the work done in half the time it was done before the convenience of machinery, but homemaking is more than house cleaning. It is the art of putting an atmosphere into the home. The things these two girls have done on the links I've included, put that kind of love and joy into home living.

    If there is so much time left over after all these machines apparently do your work for you, you can create useful things by sewing, or knitting, your you can show hospitality.  If you have so much free time, due to machinery doing your work for you, you can do a lot more things yourself instead of having other people do it:  cook from natural ingredients, sew your own curtains, grow your own garden and educate your own children,

     Some people get the idea that women should be home only to do housework, but that is not true. A real homemaker pays attention to more than just the housework that needs to be done. She pays attention to beauty and comfort, as well as attitudes.

     The quality of refinement should be cultivated in home life. This is simply a type of respect. Helen Andelin elaborated on it in one of her books for women, saying that a refined person is respectful of other people who may put a high value on manners or certain rituals that they feel are important. Refinement demands that we not make rude remarks about a homemaker's insistance on good manners, her enjoyment of taking tea, or even her choice of decor and colors.  Refined people will respect the home, even if they do not have the same likes and dislikes in choices of style.

      A refined person will not destroy another's enthusiasm or enjoyment of things like a cup of tea in a favorite old-fashioned tea cup, or dressing up for different occasions, or enjoying classical music.  It is tempting to join outsiders in derisive laughter aimed at people who like to wear hats and dresses or take walks in the country, but refinement calls us to refrain from such uncivilized mocking. The home is sometimes the point of ridicule, but those who are refined will not indulge in such attacks.

     When you allow the home, marriage, the training of children, your tastes in home management and arrangement, and other aspects of home living to be insulted, you are allowing people to insult their Maker, who created the first home.

     When the home is regarded as sacred, certain words will not escape the lips of the family members, and outsiders will tread more carefully in regard to the home.  Those who dwell in it will be glad that it is protected from the stresses and strains of the wild, sleepless and noisy world.

     I have a new category called "Short Stern Lectures." To print this short stern lecture, go here.