Homemaker

 Once upon a time, in a far away place, when I was a young girl of 21, someone once told me, "It is the woman's job to set the tone of the home." She was a beautiful and classy lady in her 50's, and I thought her words profound indeed, though at the time I thought she meant that the woman's choices in furniture and decor created the nature of the space in which the family would live.  Due to my ever advancing age, I now realize there was much more to it than that.The woman herself, her moods, her being impacts her family in ways both obvious and subtle.  Her priorities and sensibilities will influence the way her children will think, how they will remember their childhood, will constantly affect the happiness of her husband.  She will literally, intentionally or inadvertently, "set the tone of the home."
Homemaker is, therefore, a verb; with my actions and choices I am, for good or ill, making my home.

When I was a teenager, I mocked these women, these homemakers.  I did not understand their motives, their subservience.  I did not know they had a secret that was beyond me: love. A love that makes you want to work as hard at home as your husband does away from it, not because women are less, but to strive to be equal: equally giving your all to those you love.

When I sang, that was my identity.  It was all about me, and when I gave it up, I didn't know who I was, but God gave me a new identity, and each day he tries to teach me to serve like Christ.
One day, I may have a job again, I may even sing again, but those things will not define me.  Learning to honor God with my life and my family is the process that will.

Many intelligent, wonderful women belittle their own worth and contribution.  They get bogged down in feeling like"just a housewife", but you and I, we are not just housewives, we are homemakers.  Let us make them with intention.

Heavenly Father, help us each day to make our homes with intelligence and humor, with grace and wisdom, with love.