Delighting in Being a Worker at Home

How does keeping our homes have an impact on the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  Why should we pattern our lives, including the care of our homes, according to the Word of God?  Let’s take a look at God’s Word and be encouraged in the role He has called us to.

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,  and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. ~Titus 2:3-5 (emphasis mine)

“Working at home” or sometimes translated “keepers at home” or “busy at home” or “to take care of their homes” is the Greek word “Oikourgous” which is defined as one devoted to home duties, preoccupied with domestic affairs or a homemaker.

One of the ways we adorn the gospel is by the care and keeping of our homes.  We have been given the responsibility, as women, to the care and management of our homes. This is the primary place as women where our ministry will take place.  This is where our daughters will be raised by mothers who are continuing to fulfill their calling and learn to work alongside their mothers in this task of learning to care for a home.

In Titus chapter two the apostle Paul is examining each member of the household.  The verses we as women are so familiar with lay out the responsibilities we are called to in order that the word of God may not be reviled. The honor of God’s Word is at stake here. This is not about us but it is about God being honored in our homes and families.

He has laid before us a way of discipleship; the older women teaching the younger women. It doesn’t just happen by osmosis but by the work of the Spirit in the life of a believer and being faithfully shown the way by those who have gone before us.

As a Christian woman, I know these verses by heart but I need to keep my mind renewed as I’m swayed by the voices outside that stand against God’s Word.  I continually need to renew my mind by bringing it back to truth and teach the young women the Lord has placed in my life to do the same.  The world doesn’t see the value of a woman being a homemaker.  It seems much more important to be in the workforce where your skills are earning a paycheck and you are getting accolades for what you have accomplished.

This is where we must focus our eyes on the eternal.  The accomplishments this world would praise are temporal; the role the Lord has called us to if lived out according to His way produces eternal rewards.

Desiring to be godly homemakers who love caring for their homes and families should be a top priority of ours.  We need to look to the Lord for our strength and encouragement. The attitude by which we carry out these responsibilities will carry over onto our children.

Do your children see a mother who delights in the care and responsibility of managing a home or do they see a woman who begrudgingly carries out her tasks?  Is God’s Word being honored by our attitudes of doing all our work as unto the Lord or is God’s Word being reviled by grumbling, complaining spirits?

There are many opportunities for us to do good things outside our homes and I appreciate this beautiful quote from John MacArthur on that topic:

My hope is to encourage you today to be thankful to the role the Lord has called you in as a keeper of the home.  Delight in the care and upkeep of your home.  Continue to be a student and learn more about cleaning, cooking and caring for a home.  Let your children see the love you have for the Word of God and for the care of your home and family.  Study the Word yourself as having sound doctrine brings about biblical living.

May our lives adorn the gospel.