Tranquility at Home

On The Seashore by George Elar Hicks, English, 1824-1914

In light of the never-ending political unrest and global threats, I feel it necessary to caution women at home from being too caught up in the daily reports of impending disaster. As Christian homemakers, it is very easy to let such news be our undoing. It can rob you of your contentment at home. The sound of the world's bad news can make you physically ill or mentally unstable when exposed to it daily.
I believe the older women have a slight advantage over the younger set, in this matter, because they have noticed over the years, the housework never changes, no matter what the world news is.There are still things to be cleaned up, put away, and taken care of. There are meals to be prepared on time, and a husband to help. There are responsibilities at church, and our help is needed in the lives of our children and grandchildren.
As gently as I am able, I will explain the reason for my feelings about the danger of absorbing too much news. A lot of the national news is propaganda carefully constructed to create a certain result. Stories are often created, made up, and staged, in order to upset the populace about a certain issue enough that they will demand changes be made. One tactic of the news media is to state a lie with authority. Once that statement is made, it is followed by an emotional statement to seal the deal. I have discovered that most of the things we believe, which has come from the news media are hyped up suppositions, and even total lies, which keep the homemaker forever worried and uncertain, and do nothing to aid in achieving the neat and tidy house, beautiful home, and loving, loyal family every woman really desires deep down in her heart. To my mind, all official media reports are lies til proven true.

I recently have tried to capture more minutes in my hours and redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16, Colossians 4:5). I began to look for the ways in which the moments were slipping past me and looking for ways to save time, in the way a person might look for ways to keep from spending money. As I began to guard my time, I found a couple of things that were robbing my time. One of them was unnecessary focus and worry over the political situation. I enjoy my email friends and look forward to hearing from people, and even welcome discussions about things we need to be aware of in our daily walk with Christ. I found that I had too many subscriptions to news alerts, and even though they were conservative, and most of them from a Christian view, I would always click the link and go read about the atrocities being perpetrated by the wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)
Many hours of time slipped away from me while tending to the political demands of reading the articles to become informed, (after all, I would not want anyone to think I am an ignorant housewife who does not know who is the president) forwarding things to be signed, calling a representative, writing letters, and so forth.

Time lost, can never be recovered, but losing your mind to thoughts of terror and fear, and letting all your prayer time be absorbed in trying to correct the whole world, is also a waster. If you cannot concentrate on your home life, with all it entails, it might be that too many things are in your mind; things that have nothing to do with getting your work done or your family cared for. Having your mind too full of worries about external things, can drive out the comforting thoughts of home. Most of us know a lot about the evils of this world, but not enough of the Bible. We simply do not have enough time in a day to read it all, so the Bible takes a back seat. While some news reports are politically and psychologically designed to make us believe something that might not even be true, the Bible contains the truth that gives you life and peace and true contentment.


Over the years I have discovered that the most important thing is to do the best you can at home, and put your heart into it and to broadcast good news by your very presence. The media news and talk shows, even conservative ones, are full of noise and tension, and cannot help you better yourself and don't solve the problem of urgent things at home, such as how you are going to get a proper dinner on the table.

Radio and television's continuous assault on your hearing and your nerves, can cause you to lose interest in making meals special, making a bed up beautifully, sewing a dress, shopping for things to improve the home. Or developing your talents. Women are designed by God to be loyal to their families and to feel drawn to house and home, but this loyalty can be splintered when the mind is distracted by news reports that produce continual fear.

There are several ways you can lessen the impact of the bad news and increase the influence of the good news, thereby improving your sense of well-being.
1. What you hear on the national news is the bad news. Christ's words are the good news. Rely on them to sustain you, referring to them as often as you would nourish yourself with physical food.
2. There exists two kingdoms: the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. Those have obeyed the gospel and are followers of Christ's will are in the kingdom of light. The world, with all its bad news, most which leave us unable to fix, is in the kingdom of darkness. It is disturbing that there is so much of that darkness around us in the form of news, public immorality and vice.
What is often not noticed are the quiet things going on in the kingdom of light: in the same town where there is a casino, there might be several congregations of the Lord's church, adding up to several hundred people throughout the town or city. In the same town where city hall is run by those who have rejected the law of God, there are hundreds of families who bow their heads in prayer whe sharing a meal. In a place where it seems like women are ruling over courts and classrooms, there are many more who are teaching their own children at home.
At times whe young women are being distracted into other things, there are the quiet women who are content to be wives, mothers and homemakers, guiding another generation to do the same.
This is not said to deny the evil going on around us, but to show the good things that never are broadcast.
The goal is to live the way you teach, and bring more people out of the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of light.(Colossians 1:13) That is the best way to conquer .Get more people on your side. Then, there will be more of you and less of them.

3. Understand the tactic of demoralization. If you can be demoralized by the bad reports, you will become immobilized, depressed, and unable to move forward with your goals in the home. Your house will be neglected when you feel unhappy. One of the first things the enemies of Nehemiah did, when he began to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, was to mock, jeer, and give them negative reports, saying things like, "the wall is so weak, that if a fox ran over it, he could crumble it," and, "You can never rebuild that wall!" Nehemiah knew that with the Lord's help, it would be done. After a time, he posted guards to prevent the naysayers from discouraging the workers. I think we need to be the guards for our homes, to prevent the bad news which would demoralize us.
4. Christians are told to be watchful of their own behavior, (1 Peter 4:7)but often I think we are pressured to watch the news instead. There are a lot of unsavory and impure things reported on the news that we should not give ear to, because it takes away the sweet innocense of the happy homemaker. Too much bad news can cause a change in personality.

5. Use the precious hours in your day to create a lovely life for your family. Children deserve to have real childhoods, with picnics, nature walks, stories, playing dress up and playing house, enjoying fresh air and building sand castles or tree forts. They cannot have a happy,carefree childhood (which they will need for future reference and relief from stress) if they are exposed to the worries of this world. That is not to imply that they should be free from good training or responsibility, it just that it is in our best interest and theirs, to give them a lovely childhood. Let them be children as long as you can. There will be enough for them to worry about as adults.
6. Religious controversy can deliver the same amount of stress. Sometimes there are people who think homemakers are obligated to debate various religious issues with them or prove that God exists. Homemakers probably have enough to do teaching their own children these things, and it is less stressful. God gave us only a few things to do, explained in Titus 2: take care of husband, children, keep house, guide the home. This embraces much more, so you will never run out of things to do. It does not mean you will never ever pay attention to the news or to the false religious doctrines that are always around, but that your priority is the home.

7. Having your mind on too many problems is bad for your hormones, bad for your blood circulation, bad for your digestion, bad for your posture and unhealthy all around. The Lord told us not to think of the things of darkness, but to think on things that are lovely (Philippians 4:8) and to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit (Galations 5:22)

To read what Lillibeth has to say about real news, please go here http://thepleasanttimes.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-news.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ThePleasantTimes+%28The+Pleasant+Times%29

8. Do not neglect the talents you have that energize and relax you. Enjoy the things you like. Do not dwell too much on the next end-time prediction. If you dwell on the end time, you cannot enjoy the present. Jesus himself said that even He did not know when He would come, but only His Father, God. In the meantime, we are here to do what God told us to do in His Word, and one thing He told us was not to worry:

Php 4:6    Be anxious for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Php 4:7    And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Php 4:8    Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Php 4:9    Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

 

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