My keepers at home posts get the gold
medal for causing the most disgust of any posts I write. The topic of
submission gets the silver. What used to be normal just fifty years ago is
foreign to women today. We should never be surprised about this since the world
hates the Lord’s ways.
I saw an interview recently and the
husband made this comment, "We
don't want children so we can just focus upon ourselves." I hope you understand how selfish this
mindset is if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. The Lord’s will for younger
women is to marry, bear children, and guide the home so they do not give Satan
occasion to speak evil about believers and His Word (1 Timothy 5:14). My
youngest daughter just had a baby and so did my younger son's wife. These
babies are only three weeks apart. Their labors were long and difficult.
Recovering is hard since they lost so much sleep laboring for days and now they
have a newborn to care for. Yes, bearing and raising children is one of the
hardest things a couple can do but it reaps so many blessings. Nothing worth
having is easy. The joy all of them experienced the moment they held their
newborn baby in their arms can't be matched to anything else. They can’t wait
to be the ones to raise their children.
Compare this
to something that happened to me recently. I went to a baby shower for a lovely
Christian young woman and then I went to an engagement party for a very excited
Christian engaged couple. There was much reason to rejoice at these two events.
However, at the end of the day, I was rather depressed. Both women weren’t
going to be home with their children and some of them were so involved with
their careers of becoming a doctor or some other highly educated career that
they probably will never be home with their children if they are blessed with
them. Either they have invested so much time in having their career or they
have accumulated too much debt.
Telling working
wives or single mothers that they are harming their children or families by
doing what they must only deepens the hurt and divide between women in our
churches. Why not instead reach out to a working or single mother, try to
empathize and love them in their areas of need?
Contrary to popular opinion, I am not involved in “mommy wars.” I am
involved with teaching younger women what the Lord has commanded me in His Word
to teach. Children have no clue why their mothers may not be home with them but
it doesn’t mean they need them any less. Studies have proven that children need
their mothers full time since the Lord designed them this way. It’s a frightening
thing to go against His clear directions to us. Understand something women,
whatever the Lord commands He provides. It may mean living extremely frugal and
giving up “wants” but it will be well worth it for the security and happiness
of your children. I have seen and read of too many women who trust the Lord,
come home, and are provided for.
Working and single mothers need to pray about it earnestly and ask the
Lord for wisdom in how to come home whether it means finding a way to make
money from home, living simply without wants, praying their husbands will be
convicted about them coming home or even remarrying if they are widows so they
can be home. They must also trust God to provide and step out in faith. Where
there is a will, there is a way, especially if you have the God of the universe
living in and through you because He owns everything.
As one young wife and mother who comments on my blog frequently wrote yesterday, "My mom worked all our childhood - from the time I was six weeks old and didn't retire until I was in college. The house was always extremely messy, much like what I think TheJoyFilledWife wrote about.
Now that she's retired, she's able to have a clean and relaxing house. She told me the other day that she loved watching what I'm doing with the kids {I was elated!}. She actually said, 'You're doing what I should have done.' Wow!! It was very affirming to hear that."
As one young wife and mother who comments on my blog frequently wrote yesterday, "My mom worked all our childhood - from the time I was six weeks old and didn't retire until I was in college. The house was always extremely messy, much like what I think TheJoyFilledWife wrote about.
Now that she's retired, she's able to have a clean and relaxing house. She told me the other day that she loved watching what I'm doing with the kids {I was elated!}. She actually said, 'You're doing what I should have done.' Wow!! It was very affirming to hear that."
Please, don't look back on your life with regrets by missing out on the chance to bear and raise your own children!
I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
1 Timothy 5:14
