Consider using cracked or chipped teapots as garden ornaments. Since this one is cracked at the base, it has good drainage. I put pebbles in it first and then topsoil, added a plant and some mulch.
I have added a pretty new blog to my blogroll, and hope it gets many visits: Inner Beauty of a Christian Wife
The subject I chose for today is The Woman's Duty at Home, a reader-requested subject, which includes the question of how much authority a woman has in her own home, to guard it and guide it.
There are a number of religious books and some teachings circulating that claim a woman has no authority at all in her Titus 2 role, but I cannot see that at all. Titus 2 and various other New Testament scriptures teach that the Christian woman must guide and guard the home. These scriptures give the woman the authority they need to make rules and establish policies regarding how that home should be run. If she wants people to remove their shoes at the door or not engage in loud conversation, or if she wants them to pick up after themselves, wash before they come to the table, or help with the housework, she has the authority to enforce that. She does not have to appeal to anyone to give her permission to be a keeper of the home, a guide of the home and a guard of the home. She already got permission from God's Word.
A keeper at home is working under the appointment she was given by Christ, as indicated in the scripture. In my opinion, homemaking is a work set apart from the world, with a special significance different than any other work. She should be treated as a sister in Christ, with honor and respect. Her children should not yell at her or berate her or complain. If they are older children who know better, she should not allow them to eat a meal or help themselves to anything in the house that she looks after, until they return to good manners.
Some women continue to make life easy for the scornful and disrespectful people that make her life hard at home. They feel they are not being feminine if they put a limit on such behavior or if the reprimand anyone, but if she does not do this, she is not taking her job seriously. Would any manager of a business allow the co-workers to harass and disrespect the other employees or the owner of the company? Home is more sacred than government, more sacred than business, and it was created even before the church came into existence, so its importance should be respected by the members that dwell together in it. Home therefore must be guarded and guided and protected, and that includes the dwelling place and the people in it.
Other women want to make their husbands guide the home, and in waiting for that to happen, women neglect their scriptural duty to guide the home and guard it. Guarding entails being particular about unwholesome influences, including company, and being particular about orderliness and cleanliness, design and style. In general whe you guard something you keep it intact and prevent intrusion and erosion, physically and spiritually.
Women have always taken charge of the home, and it is not wrong for a woman to rule her home. God has given Her charge of it. The problem today is the intimidation by those who say a woman is domineering if she rules over her household tasks and trains her children to be polite and respectful. Women are instead taught to be too timid even to prevent the rude takeover of their homes. They sometimes will allow children and men to wreck the house and bad-mouth the woman. Sometimes a woman allows so much license in the home that the atmosphere deteriorates into a hostile environment and the woman has to take to her bed. If a woman does not guard the condition of her home and her children, including their manners, she is in derelict of duty.
Guiding includes planning the family social life, keeping track of appointments and important posessions, and preventing things that might harm the family spiritually or physically. Guiding includes teaching manners and good judgement in preparation for life.
Women cannot depend on men to run the home, and so they must gather up their courage and tackle the job with all the strength and determination they can muster. Men must often be away from home, sometimes for weeks at a time, and the women at home can it just give up and wait for the men to be home before they do their duty at home. We can take a lesson from the brave widows who, left with children to raise, applied themselves to the task and did an admirable job on their own, with no complaining or resentment.
Posted with Blogsy
12 comments:
I whole-heartedly agree with an appreciate your words here. It may have even taken some courage on your part to say this. Too many of our godly women think that we have no say in anything. The exceptions to flat out obedience to husbands are if he asks us to sin (like, lie for him), or the exception you have given here - guiding the home. Of course, he can have his input, but a wise woman knows what is needed more than her husband knows when it comes to say, the children's clothes money, their friends, food to prepare, etc. Thanks for posting this.
Thank you for the link to my blog :) That is sweet, I appreciate that!
I agree with your post. It is Biblical for women to manage our home. It comes so natural for us.
I love the broken teapot idea! Beautiful!
Your friend,
Candy, from Canada
That was really a great article!
I have never understood how someone could work outside the home and still keep guarding it and be successful at keeping up with all the work. I see how busy people have made themselves, and I cannot help but think of that biblical phrase about a place becoming an "habitation of jackals", meaning, of course, that all human order and community has ceased and a place has become wild and bereft. Gail
Some women do claim they manage wuite well, but the family,use are not occupying the home all day and there is a lot less to do in a house when it is empty of people most of the time.
The disrespect for the home and for hospitality is still quite jarring as it makes the senses reel and is so blatant. I have seen ladies and young men as young as the age of 18 lambasting their parents, defiant and threatening, over a reasonable request to clean theor own messes, bathe and put on clean clothes, and lower the volume of their music.
Thankyou for this post. Only last night I sat down and was writing out my responsibilities as a homemaking homeschooler, it really helps to refresh and clarify.
At this time I find myself in an unfamiliar position with a move we made last year 2 hours away from our business that is on the market to be sold, the sale is taking longer than expected and my husband needs to be there to run it from Tuesday to Saturday lunch time, I miss him terribly through the week while he is away.
At first I found it hard to cope because I didn't allow for change in my routine and way of doing things and then realised that I needed to "dress for the weather" and sit down and figure out what changes needed to be made and what I was responsible for and now that my children are getting a little older was there some responsibilities that could now be handed over to them that I had been carrying for their little hands, which had grown stronger.
The first few months I found myself fretting and my husband worrying about my fretting, so he would come home at the end of the week and spend time helping get the home in order again.
I saw that I was not being the blessing God intended a wife to be, once I redefined and "dressed for the weather" things did get smoother and are continuing to. My husband can now focus on his work and spend time in his home and with his family without chaos taking away the peace.
When the business sells and we are all together I will again change and "dress for the weather", I find so much encouragement from bloggers just like you lady Lydia, it helps one keep on the course!
Blessings x
What a wonderful article!
The teapot is so pretty..what a lovely idea!
I very much appreciate your words on managing the home, and I agree wholeheartedly!
God Bless you today!
Well, today it was implied by my aunt, who is 68, that I am a leech to my husband and my daughter will be one as well because we don't work. The poor man will have to work until he is 90 she said. My husband was with me and he said that they (they are my female relatives ages 88, 68, 67, my grandma, mother, and aunt, strong feminists) live in the real world nor do they know God. Still it hurt.
There really is no respect for the homemaker at all.
Let us put an end to that ridiculous belief. I have heard it, too. There are some people who believe that a woman at home does not own her home because she does not contribute money to it. When you count all the dishes you have washed and meals you have cooked, floors you have swept, and walls you have scrubbed or painted, and much much more, you do own the house. A friend of mine recently lost her husband, who died after a long illness. She looked after him at home fir many years of his illness, and now there are jealous people who say she didn't earn anything so she does not deserve to inherit the property that she looked after. She had planted gardens year after year and prepared food from the fresh vegetables. She mowed the grass when her husband could no longer do it. She hosted many people in her home over the years, which is a lot of unselfish, willing hard hard work..
That being said, if the woman had been frail, and the man had taken care of her and later he died, she would have still inherited the house. That is the way it works, and it has nothing to do with the woman having a career.
Your husband was right to say that they don't understand reality. If a man chooses to look after his wife and children, and someone speaks to him like that, they are not respecting him, either.
This was extremely helpful today. We have had a years on-going argument about children and electronics. I have often wondered if I am really supposed to allow the children unlimited hours of access to whatever is on tv and computer games because it pleases my husband. (While it is on, of course, they are staring at it rather than asking him for attention.)
Much to the children's (and probably my husband's) dismay, I will continue to put my foot down. They simply do not need hours of electronic entertainment each day, whether or not it is 'good' entertainment.
Once again you are speaking to my heart. I have had to learn to take over guiding our home while my husband works many hours. Moving frequently has added to the task of making the home a comfortable nourishing place to come home and rest. I am currently having to deal with a neighbor who refuses to respect our space and privacy and threatens to turn our happy home into chaos. I was taught in the past to be quiet and non- aggressive. So many times her rude remarks and prying questions leave me speechless. I am learning to simply walk away and concentrate on what's really important. I think it cannot be overexpressed how important home is. It truly is our sanctuary and
a place where we can be quiet and listen to what God is telling us. Most everyone I meet both neighbors, relatives, and church members no longer have respect for or understand the extreme importance of women in the home. We have to find the strength and willpower to fight our way back to our rightful place in society. It has become a daily challenge for me. Thank you for another wonderful article.
Jill, the women's ministries I am referring to are not the same as the church activities in a local church, nor the crisis pregnancy centers. This kind of women's ministry that is going around is a motivational, speaking and fundraising type of networking and marketing system. Their websites use words like "empowering women"
Other words they use are
Leadership
Equipping and empowering
Aspirations and visions
dynamic
audacious
Post a Comment