Homemaking Matters: Why the Work You Do at Home Matters to God
Inside: Our homemaking matters to the Lord. God is working out His purposes in our ordinary days, molding us more into the image of His Son.
Estimated reading time: 17 minutes
This message is the foundation for my book, Homemaking Matters. It’s not a how-to book on homemaking, but a book on how our theology shapes our work at home. If you’d like to dig deeper into the importance of our work at home, pick up a copy. With 11 chapters and reflection questions at the end, it will expand so much more.
Listen In to the Podcast:
This post was adapted from Episode 79 of the Thankful Homemaker podcast.
Homemaking matters, because what we do in our homes matters to the Lord.
Our work in our homes and in the care of our families is one of God’s ways of working out His purposes in our lives to mold us more into the image of His Son.
If you’re reading this, I’m thinking we have two things in common. First, you are most likely a Christian woman who is a homemaker, and second, you may find yourself wondering at times if the job you’re doing is making a difference.
When the Work Seems Mundane
We rarely take the time to consider how our work in our homes matters, and we can struggle to discover purpose amid what seem to be mundane tasks we handle day after day.
It’s hard to radiate joy and a thankful heart when the sink is overflowing with dishes, you’re up all night with a sick child, and the clothes in the laundry room are resembling Mt. Everest. We spend most of our days cleaning, cooking, and tending to the needs of others. This is true whether you work full-time in your home or you work part-time or full-time outside your home.
We drop into bed exhausted only to wake up and do it all again tomorrow. As homemakers, our accomplishments can go unrecognized by our families and the world around us, and most likely we will not get nominated for the Homemaker of the Year award (and yes, there is such a thing—google it).
As a Christian homemaker, you would think my thoughts and reactions to daily life would naturally have a heavenly, eternal perspective, but they don’t. I spend many of my days self-focused, not thinking on eternal things but grumbling about the here and now. I get caught up in the moment and don’t have my eyes steadfast on the eternal.
My joy is lost the moment my focus becomes inward and not upward. Being heavenly minded doesn’t take away the reality that we are given tasks to take care of on this earth. We have responsibilities God has given us, but having an eternal perspective will guide our earthly responses and attitudes to the circumstances and relationships the Lord puts in our paths.
God Is Working All Things for Good
Romans 8:28 reminds us that God is working all things out for good to those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. The “all” here means “all.” In our role as homemakers, it means all of the days that didn’t go as planned, all of the disobedient children, all of the tasks on a growing to-do list, and many other unexpected issues that arise in our days.
God’s work in us is a mark of His great love for us. He doesn’t leave us where He found us but continues to grow us in holiness. We have things in our homes to accomplish each day that are appointed and given to us by the Lord (I have a podcast episode on that—see Episode 75, The Lord Appoints Our Portion), but God is more concerned about what’s going on in our hearts than with the actual work.
Don’t misunderstand me: the work He’s given us is important, and we need to be diligent in carrying it out, but it’s in the unseen place of our souls where the Lord is carrying out the biggest work in us. It’s in our hearts.
For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)
The Lord is redeeming our character as we go about our daily tasks.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. (Romans 5:3–4)
I’m thankful He doesn’t leave us as we are but continues to change us and mold us more and more into the likeness of Jesus. We are growing in spiritual maturity when we can recognize God’s hand in every task or trial or tribulation, and when we can rejoice and praise Him amid them.
I want us to capture the reality of God’s hand in every aspect of our lives as homemakers. There is purpose, ladies, being worked out in our normal day-to-day life. God is always at work behind the scenes.
It’s the unseen work our God is doing that I want us to remember when those days are hard and long and seem meaningless. What we see as routine, the Lord sees as His hand molding us more into Christlikeness.
Our Primary Ministry Is in the Ordinary
We live most of our lives in the ordinary. It’s in the dishes and laundry and caring for our families where we find ourselves, and these ordinary moments are where our primary ministry takes place.
There is no separation in God’s Word between the secular and sacred. If we’re in Christ, everything is sacred, including cooking, running errands, cleaning, and wiping runny noses.
I’ve been a full-time homemaker for most of my married years. You would assume after 34 years, I’d have figured out how to bring honor and glory to God in all things, but I’m still a learner. Which is what you get here—what the Lord continues to teach me.
Many days, you will find my heart grumbling over household chores, plans that didn’t go my way, or difficult relationships in my life.
Then there are those days where glimpses of His grace are evident—when I find myself being intentional and joy-filled in praying for my family while folding laundry and giving thanks to Him in hard trials, knowing that through them, He’s changing me more into His likeness and in my dependence on Him.
In those moments, His grace has opened my eyes to see that my homemaking does matter. It matters not just to meet the needs of my family—that is an essential aspect of my calling—but it is making a difference in my spiritual growth as a Christian woman.
Daily time with Him in the Word and prayer will continue to teach us more of who God is and, in light of who He is, what He requires of us.
We need to be students of the Word. Reading, praying, memorizing, and meditating on it, and sitting under good, solid, exegetical preaching are good and essential aspects of our walk with the Lord, but we need to study God’s Word for ourselves—to dig in and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord. (There’s a podcast series on the spiritual disciplines starting in Episode 52, and I have a free resource to share with you at the end of this post to help you get in the Word daily.)
There is much work we do that will take place outside our homes, but my focus with you today is where we find our primary ministry as homemakers: in our homes and with our families.
God’s higher purposes are being worked out in our seemingly ordinary days.
Called to Be Keepers of Our Homes
We are all making a home, so whether you find yourself here as a woman who is single or married, with or without children, working full-time inside your home or working full-time or part-time outside your home, you, as a Christian woman, are called to be a keeper of your home.
What that looks like lived out in each of our homes will look different. Our circumstances and families and personalities and so many other things in our lives are all so different. But if you are a woman and you are a follower of Jesus, then Titus 2:3–5 is speaking to you.
Let’s read Titus 2:3–5. I know we’re familiar with these verses, but a refresher is always good:
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
In the book of Titus, and especially here in chapter 2, the apostle Paul is laying out for us the instructions on how the church is to conduct itself. He gives instruction in this chapter to older men, older women, younger women, and younger men—so he’s pretty well hitting everyone.
These instructions help us to live together as a body of believers in obedience to the Lord and in unity with one another in the church and in our homes, and in addition, they give us a beautiful witness to those outside the body of Christ.
Adorning the Gospel Before a Watching World
So it’s impactful in our homes and churches, but lives lived out in obedience to God’s Word are a beautiful witness to a lost world.
Let’s look at a few verses in Titus together that address our witness to a watching world.
In verse 5 of Titus 2, the apostle Paul tells us, “that the word of God may not be reviled.”
In verse 8: “so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.”
And verse 10: “so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.”
Our godly behavior adorns the gospel and puts on display the beauty of Jesus to a watching world. Part of that watching world is those within our own homes. Your home is a mission field. You may have children or a husband who don’t yet know the Lord. You may have other family members living with you who are outside of Christ. You have people you are showing hospitality to who are outside of Christ. And always we have our witness to those outside the four walls of our home.
We should desire, as it says in Titus 2:10, that in everything we may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
John MacArthur states on these verses in Titus 2:3–5 directed toward women:
“God has a magnificent and wonderful design for women. It is a design which will fulfill their created purpose, maximize their uniqueness, make them a blessing to the world, and bring fulfillment to their own lives and glory to the name of God. And that design is briefly stated there in those verses. The instruction there is God’s design for women—women in the church—so that the church can have a powerful witness and so that God can be glorified and His Word honored.”
Working at Home
There is much in these verses to work through, but today, in our discussion on why our homemaking matters, we’re just looking at “working at home” from Titus 2:5. It’s the Greek word oikourgous, and it comes from two root words: ergon, which means work, and oikos, which means house. Some other Bible versions translate it keepers of our homes, workers at home, busy at home, and homemakers.
There are so many opportunities we miss when we neglect this domain the Lord has given us. It is a unique opportunity we’ve been given, and many times we look at it as a waste of our time and talents instead of a place to allow our gifts and talents to shine through.
Please hear what I’m not saying, nor what the text is saying. It doesn’t say a wife and mother can’t work outside the home or have activities that take place outside the home, because there is nothing in Scripture that forbids her taking an outside job. I do want to share that if you are looking at working outside your home, or even working from home, make sure it is done through much prayer and wisdom, and as a married couple, you should seek the Lord together on what is best for your family.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Our desire as Christian women should be to glorify the Lord in all we do.
Consider Elisabeth Elliot’s words in reference to your work in your home:
“This job has been given to me to do. Therefore, it is a gift. Therefore, it is a privilege. Therefore, it is an offering I may make to God. Therefore, it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him. Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness.” —Elisabeth Elliot
Questions for Our Hearts at Home
Do we think of our role as a homemaker as a gift or a privilege or an offering we make to God? Do we do it gladly and for Him? Are we mindful that we are learning God’s way in this sphere where He has placed us?
Do we love our families with open arms and hearts, ready to love selflessly? Do we seek to bring good to our husbands all the days of our lives? What about our speech in our homes? Is it cheerful, encouraging, and gentle when we have to correct?
Is the fruit of the Spirit evident as we go about our days? Does it make a difference as we deal with the mundane tasks—our calling to show love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?
Are we mindful of our most important task as parents? It’s not wrong to desire your child to succeed or develop their gifts and talents, but our greatest responsibility is to teach them about Jesus.
Deuteronomy 6:4–9 comes to mind here:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4–9)
Pointing our children to the Lord is part of our role as Christian parents. I can’t change their hearts, and I can’t make them love God, but while I have them, I can model the love of Christ to them and tell them of the goodness and the gift of salvation of this God I know and love and serve.
Our hope is to bring the love of Jesus into all areas of our family life. We can model to our children that all of life belongs to God and we can worship and enjoy Him in every moment of our days.
A Haven for Our Families
So, my friend, we clean and cook. We kiss boo-boos and mop floors. We create a place of warmth and love for our families to find refuge from the storms of this life.
We have the ability to create a haven, a little bit of heaven here on earth, as we are being prepared, in the midst of doing that, for our eternal home in heaven one day.
Our homes are a place where our families know they are loved and where they can share whatever burdens or difficulties are going on in a place that is safe, knowing we desire God’s best for them.
We are able to love, encourage, and support our husbands. We are able to open our home to others and extend hospitality to fellow believers and the stranger.
You know all that takes place in your home, and even if I tried, I couldn’t touch on all the aspects that go into caring for our homes and families.
I want us to grab hold of the reminder that it’s not about perfection. We will not achieve that here on earth, and we will make ourselves and others in our lives miserable trying.
Don’t fall into the trap of trying to earn God’s favor through your own effort—rest in His presence. Jesus is enough.
Seek the Lord in prayer. Pray for eyes to see His hand at work in your life. Pray for a heart to see your sin and to turn from it and walk in obedience to the Lord’s ways.
If your heart has been changed by the Lord to know and love and serve Him, then you have the desire within you to share that love with others. You want to point them to Christ—to the only One who is worthy of our worship.
The care of your home and family is going to look different in all the various seasons of your life. Don’t get caught up comparing your life with someone else’s. You need to honor the Lord where He has placed you and love and care for the family He has gifted you with, in the way He has gifted and equipped you and in the season you are in.
We do what we do not just because we love our families. We do love them, and that is a huge reason—don’t hear me saying that’s not a reason, because it is. I love caring for my family. They are the people I love the most on this earth.
But as a believer, as one who has been redeemed and given a new heart in Christ, I do what I do for the glory of God.
Our homes are a primary place where we serve our families and others by the grace of God and for His glory.
Our homes are a mission field, and they are a place where we can make known the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Remembering Who We Are in Christ
We can lose focus of this important ministry the Lord has given us, and we do this because we lose focus first and foremost on who we are in Christ. Too many days and moments, we can find ourselves discontent and lacking purpose.
In these moments, we need to be reminded of what already is true. We need a reminder, friend, of our identity in Christ—this is our primary calling as believers. As we are reminded of our identity in Christ, it’s there that we can live out, to the glory of God, our secondary calling as wives and mothers and homemakers with hope and joy.
We can tend to look for our identity in what we do and what we accomplish. When we look anywhere else outside of who God says we are, our view of our identity will be distorted. Contentment will be lost, and we will not find satisfaction in the role He has placed us in.
One of my favorite reads, and one I love to recommend, on grasping the importance of our identity in Christ is Who Am I? by Jerry Bridges.
If you are looking anywhere besides Christ to find your value and worth, I also recommend taking the time to listen to podcast Episode 69 on preaching the gospel to ourselves.
Jerry Bridges tells us in Who Am I? that we must be preaching the gospel to ourselves every day. We are a forgetful people, and we quickly can fall into a works mentality and forget God’s goodness in bringing us to Himself through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is enough, and we need this reminder daily.
The key point here to know and be reminded of is that my identity is not in being a wife and mother or daughter or employee. I am not something because of those titles, but I am something because I am in Christ.
You don’t need to be more to matter, because as a Christian, you already matter to the only One who matters. So my starting place is the gospel.
Reminding ourselves of the gospel means allowing our thinking, emotions, and responses to be shaped daily by the truth of the gospel.
It is a reminder I need daily, and I’m thinking you do too.
So, what is the gospel? Let me bring all our hearts back to it for those of us who are in Christ, and let me share it with those reading who maybe have not repented and come into a personal relationship with Jesus.
The gospel is the good news that the one and only God, who is holy, made us in his image to know him.
But we sinned and cut ourselves off from him.
And in his great love, God became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross, fulfilling the law himself and taking on himself the punishment for the sins of all those who would ever turn and trust in him.
Jesus rose again from the dead, showing that God accepted Christ’s sacrifice and that God’s wrath against us had been exhausted.
He now calls us to repent of our sins and to trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness.
If we repent of our sins and trust in Christ, we are born again into a new life, an eternal life with God.
See, when we need a role to define who we are as Christians, we have forgotten the gospel.
Being a Christian is not defined in terms of who we are in and of ourselves, but it is defined in terms of what God has done for us and to us and the destiny He has appointed us to as believers.
If we have been redeemed, then it is God who has saved us and made us who we are so we can make Him known. Our identity is in being His alone—I love that!
Jesus Is Our Sufficiency
See, here’s the reality: caring for a home and family is hard. There are days we are not going to go about our work with a right attitude.
This is why Jesus needs to be our Rock, our trusted advisor, and our companion. He must be our sufficiency, our everything.
It is because of Jesus that when things get hard—and there will be hard days—He is the One who is holding us fast. He is the One who gives us the strength to be faithful in the role He has placed us in. He will not leave us or forsake us. He will equip us to do every good work He has called us to.
We just need to deal with today; we don’t need to worry about tomorrow. Our lives are to be offered to the Lord as a living sacrifice, and we do this one day at a time and one moment at a time.
Friend, humility and surrender are the way to true joy. We will never lose what we offer to Christ. Our sanctification in this life—becoming more like Christ—takes place moment by moment, task by task.
If you are a homemaker, this is the place the Lord is working to change you more into His likeness, and He’s using you to point others to Him.
Setting Our Minds on Things Above
Let me close with some thoughts on Colossians 3:1–4.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1–4)
Joni Eareckson Tada writes:
“When a Christian realizes his citizenship is in heaven, he begins acting as a responsible citizen of earth. He invests wisely in relationships because he knows they’re eternal. His conversations, goals and motives become pure and honest because he realizes these will have a bearing on everlasting reward. …He gives generously of time, money, and talent because he’s laying up treasure for eternity. He spreads the good news of Christ because he longs to fill heaven’s ranks with his friends and neighbors. All this serves the pilgrim well not only in heaven, but on earth; for it serves everyone around him.”
Once we’re in Christ, there is no separation of the secular and sacred. We don’t tend to think of the daily tasks in our home as sacred, but in Christ, all of life is sacred. Our homes should be sanctuaries, sacred places where our families can find rest and encouragement as they go out into the world. Love is modeled, discipline is taught, character is molded. Their physical needs are taken care of, and home is a resting place.
It is here that the Lord has us, with the reminder that He is working all things for our good and His glory. Whatever we do, we are to do it all for His glory. The “whatever” is cleaning, cooking, laundry, caring for our families, loving our families, dealing with difficulties and trials, serving, and making the most of the time we’ve been given.
“You can never lose what you have offered to Christ.”
—Elisabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart
Jesus truly is enough—always.
I have a free PDF guide you can grab from the free library when you subscribe, called 20 Ways to Find Time with the Lord When Your Days Are Crazy Busy.
This post was adapted from Episode 79 of the Thankful Homemaker podcast.
Homemaking Matters
Living for God’s glory in the ordinary
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