When I was in school, boys took shop and girls took home economics, but those days are long gone. Today, we sedate the boys to keep them calm and we teach the girls to be more aggressive through sports and war. And this is supposed to be progress?
A recent article by Amanda Marcotte in Slate, “Let’s Stop Idealizing the Home-Cooked Family Dinner,” shows where this has gotten us. The sub-title gives it away, “The Tyranny of the Home-Cooked Meal.” Marcotte’s assessment: cooking is “expensive and time-consuming and often done for a bunch of ingrates who would rather just be eating fast food anyway.”
The secular world no longer seems to see homemaking as a calling and ministry that is vital to the spiritual and social well-being of families. But what does God say about this? Young women are “to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed” (Titus 2:5).
In general, this is a verse that is not highly favored in the church at large, let alone in the secular world. But notice the interesting word “homemakers.” It means to be “keepers of the house.” The biblical admonition is for Christian women to “care for” or “order” their homes–nurturing the children, cleaning up and caring for the house, and yes, preparing healthy, nutritious food for the family. Keeping the home clean and orderly and cooking meals is not tyranny; it is a calling, a ministry, and obedience to Christ.
Here is what the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy along this same line, “I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully” (1 Timothy 5:13–14).
A godly woman makes her home a haven of safety, love, and nurture in a stressful world. A Christian home where discipleship is taking place needs to have orderly meals and time as a family around the table to learn from one another, to discuss life and issues in relationship to God’s word, and yes, just to have fun and enjoy one another.
The biblical responsibility for women to be homemakers is not appreciated these days and instead women are encouraged to pursue careers and “equality” with men. In the meantime, our homes and marriages are falling apart, our children are becoming barbarians and even our churches are suffering, as women are too busy to serve in various ways within the congregation.
We cannot change the thinking of the secular world, but we can conform our own lives and our own homes to the teaching of Scripture and become a point of light and grace in an otherwise dreary and fallen world.
Comments are closed.