I'll be the first to admit, I miss the days when instead of being looked on with disdain by all but other house wives... home makers were respected. When it wasn't a bad thing for a young girl to say "I want to stay at home, raise my kids, take care of my house, and love my husband, as I honestly believe God intended me to do."
Now, before that sends half of you off into the stratosphere, let me explain.
Yes, I honestly believe that God intended women to be keeper at home. So many references in the Bible talk about women at home.
Take for example:
Titus 2: 3-5
The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
Emphasis was mine.
Women are fully capable of having flourishing careers in a huge number of areas. But I honestly think that the family unit, and the woman herself, most benefit from having the woman at home. Now, I understand sometimes this isn't possible, for financial or health reasons. But I will also qualify that by saying, that maybe if you can't stay at home... consider cutting back your life style. It's well worth it.
Anyway.
I miss the days when you didn't have to defend that belief. I miss the days when it was... almost expected. I miss the days when a little girl learned to take care of a home and raise children while holding onto her mother's skirt.
I miss the days when the home was not viewed as a cage, but a woman's fortress. Her area where she ruled with a quiet certainty of what needed to be done, and no one knew the workings of it as well as she did, where her husband and children could depend on her to keep it, and with it, them, in good working order.
I honestly think that the art of homemaking... is a dying one. In the right circles you see it making a comeback, but more and more, you see young women turning to careers and putting off families all together to pursue other areas of their lives. And, if... if a young woman dares say she wants to stay at home and raise a family, she's branded a destroyer of women's rights, and is proverbially stoned to death by an onslaught of propaganda from all sides.
She is told that somehow this choice of hers undermines her value as a woman, and that she is wasting her life by frittering it away in the kitchen. That one day she will regret her decision, and that nothing she could do there will be as fulfilling as leaving the home and finding her fulfillment in a career. Not only that but she is told that she demeans woman kind as a whole by making this choice, and that this choice is contributing to a chauvinistic, paternal society where she is no better than a doormat.
What a load of bull-puckey.
A woman's choice is her choice. The fact that she has the choice to stay home is a woman's right. There is no way on earth that somehow her choice to stay home demeans her or anyone else. Staying at home and raising her children, she is a beneficially, working part of society. She is a laundress, maid, babysitter, teacher, chef, expert negotiator, and chauffeur. She works every minute of every day, as hard as she can, often without thanks or acknowledgement from those who benefit most from her labours. At the end of the day, she has created a loving, warm, happy environment that her family can call home. She has raised children who, God willing, are well adjusted, polite, hardworking, human beings who also contribute to society.
How is this any less important than having a career as a business woman? A therapist, a physical trainer, an engineer? Why are these skills held up in high regard when the skills that it takes to make a safe and happy home are devalued?
I honestly don't know, but I plan to teach my daughters the art of home making.
I want to teach them how to care for a home, how to raise children, how to provide food for her family, both in cooking and preserving, how to create an atmosphere of love in everything she does, and most of all, how to honor God with every word from her lips and every move she makes.
Now, please note: My sons will learn to. :P They won't really have much of a choice. But I will teach them what the Bible has to say about male and female roles, and I will teach them that neither role is in any way lower than the other, but rather that they are equal, but different in kind. Because this is true. And I strive always to teach my children the truth.
Still thinking,
Natasha
No comments:
Post a Comment