Click here to read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3At the end of my last post, I talked about how our role as homemakers can seem so huge and overwhelming, but also that Scripture has a solution to this. As far as I can tell, the solution is two-fold.
Firstly, to be a homemaker is God's calling on our lives as we have already seen. He is a loving and gracious God, and will fully equip us for the task that He has called us to. We will be given the skills that we need in order to manage our own household, not that of someone else's.
The other solution that I see from Scripture is that our husbands can be a part of the solution.
As women, we were created to be our husband's helpmeet. Our job description is to be our husband's helper. (Gen 1:26-31, 2:7-25, 1 Cor 11:8-9). The man needs help, and the woman needs to help.
When we consider that our primary focus is to be our husband's helper, it then follows that we should ask him what he considers would help him best. By doing this, we help ourselves. If we only have one person to please, it releases us from the burden of having to try to please everyone else as well, including ourselves. That is not to say that we shouldn't take other people (especially our children) into account, it just means that if you think that you have 10 tasks that you really MUST get done today, but your husband is really only bothered about task 2 and 7, then get those done first. It might be that your husband really appreciates, for example, a clear window sill in the kitchen, but is not bothered if the floor is swept every day. So clear the window sill, and sweep the floor if you have time. It may be that he prefers a homecooked dinner rather than clean windows etc etc. We never know until we ask. And is there really much point in doing something if it adds to your workload and doesn't bless your husband anyway?!
Of course, there are extremes, and I am not suggesting that we only do the tasks our husbands would like us to. I'm just suggesting that we prioritise those. If our husbands don't have an opinion either way, then may I suggest that you focus on the things that bless the most amount of people in one go? A clean bathroom blesses everyone. A cooked meal blesses everyone. Clean clothes bless everyone. And then you can get going on the tasks that really only you notice whether or not they are done.
Next time we will look at how we can make homemaking a more attractive thing for us and for us to model to our children, with a brief look at some common timestealers that take our energies away from our home and family life.
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