The Glorious Work of Home-Making

This is something for sister, wives, and daughters.

This was originally presented by my wife at a baby shower for a mother in their church. I repost from time to time because I think it is helpful:

The Glorious Work of Home-making

By Emily Foster

Often times for baby shower devotionals, we zoom in on the specifics of child-rearing, especially during the last few weeks of pregnancy and the first few months with a new baby. But today, I instead want to take a step back and cast a vision for what you are called to for God as a woman: The work of building a godly household.

As women, we are created to cultivate. But we have specific orientations, particular realms, in which we cultivate. As a wedded wife, you are to cultivate your marriage. As a married woman with children, you are to cultivate a godly seed, the next generation for the kingdom of God. As a Christian Homemaker, you are to cultivate a home that is a beacon for the gospel, practicing hospitality and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with all who enter your domain. Let’s look at each one of these areas a little closer.

First your marriage.

Scripture requires for elders and deacons to be faithful husbands to one wife. Because of this, we can deduce that the inverse is true: A godly wife is to be faithful to her husband. Titus two encourages older women to teach the younger women to love their husbands. A godly wife is to be a helpmate to her husband and homeward focused, coming alongside him to aid him in his kingdom work (Gen 2). Over and over again scripture exhorts us women to the high calling of being godly wives.

So how do we do this? I means praying for your husband. It means making it a priority to spend time together. It means learning to communicate and to fight fair. It means cheerfully encouraging him to participate in the body of Christ and use his gifts for the kingdom, even when that means time away from your family. It means disciplining your thoughts, choosing not to complain about your husband but rather respecting him, fallen though he is. It means learning deference in a culture that hates distinctions. It means flirting and keeping the fires of your love burning bright. If your marriage is off, it will affect every other aspect of your home. You want to guard your marriage. You want to fight to keep it holy & pure. You want to it to reflect Christ & His bride, the Church, to the watching world.

Second your children.

Scripture says that women will be saved through childbearing. I’ve always taken that to be more than simply birthing children. The refiner’s fire of motherhood is some of the hottest flames. All my impurities are exposed. Whether it’s losing my temper, or my inconsistency in reading my Bible, or bad habits like biting my nails. Thankfully, we have a Helper that will enable us to raise our children, who are made in God’s image, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says, “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.” To train up a child is a duty not only of fathers, who should teach their children, but also of mothers, who have a great influence all of the child’s life, but in a very intimate and special way during in the early years of the child’s life (Prov 31:1&8). I find that it is most helpful to build godly habits into my life so that I can train my children to do likewise.

Pray for and with your children.

Make it a habit to begin each morning with a hug, a kiss & a prayer, thanking God for His renewed mercies & orienting the day towards the Lord. Likewise, make it a habit to pray with your children when you tuck them in bed, praying that the Lord would keep them and bless them and make his face to shine upon them and grant them peace. Make it a habit to pray with your children when you apply a Band-Aid to a scrape, to pray before you eat, to pray when there has been sin and forgiveness. Making it a common thing to pray throughout the day will help you to do so naturally at other times.

Teach your children to love God‘s word.

Make it a habit to attend church regularly and to love corporate worship. There have been dry times in my Christian walk where regular attendance has been like a safety net, where I was consistently hearing God‘s word preached, even when I had a low motivation to read it at other times. Listen to & sing hymns and spiritual songs in your home. Memorize scripture together. Catechize your children, and learn it alongside them if you don’t know it.

Train your children to abhor sin.

The neglect of this was Eli’s sin, for which God judged his house. Endeavour to possess their hearts with an abhorrence of sinful practices and a dread of them. But trust in the Lord and not in the works of flesh. As sin springs from our very hearts, we ultimately have to entrust any change in our children to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Lastly your home.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of cultivating a godly home. Our culture diminishes homemakers. It is so much more than folding laundry, cleaning toilets and making meal plans. It’s about tone and atmosphere. And the parents are the ones who make it what it is. If it is happy, they are the authors of the happiness. If it be unhappy, it is on them.

The spirit & influence of the home is a great tool in which God uses for His glory and our good. It is to be a haven, a respite for your husband, a place where he can gear up to prepare and go out for battle. It is to be a nursery of the nation, a place where the shaping and training of children in godly character happens, a home in which children grow up for true and noble life, for God and for heaven. It is to be a beacon of light in this dark world, a place where hospitality is practiced and the gospel is proclaimed in word and deed to all those who passed through its doors and sit at its table.

THIS is what must be thought of in the making of a home. It is no easy task. It is something we need cultivate while we are on our knees, praying that God‘s Spirit would be poured out through this place. “Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it.” Psalm 127:1

And as if all this wasn’t reason enough to give yourself towards building a godly household, there’s yet another mercy of God to motivate you. As you honor God by cultivating your marriage, your children, and your home, God will bless your service toward others by making you into a godly wife, a godly mother, a godly woman. By His grace, you will become a Titus Two woman, a Proverbs 31 woman. A woman whose husband praises her in the gates, a woman whose children rise up and call her blessed, a woman whose Lord will say on that day, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

On that day, we will finally enter into His rest. But today we work. The life of a godly woman is full of difficult work. We can’t do it without the strength of God & the support of each other. So now, sisters, may we who sit around this room, spur each other on to these good works.

Let us pray.