Keepers At Home

Adorned Study #10

Isn’t it a comfort to know that God cares about what happens in our houses?  He created the family, and He has a plan for how we care for this ministry! Listen what He specifically says about the home in the Titus 2 passage…

That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,⁵ To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home,

I love how the KJV translates it; as “keepers at home.” This is a woman who is devoted to her home, who has a heart for it.  She’s actively engaged and makes it a high priority in her life.

But all too often, home is a place where we come in to get ready to go out to the next event.  Not much is really happening at home.  There’s little investment in one another’s lives.  Rather than it being the hub of life, it is too often just the spare tire.  

In her book, Adorned, Nancy reminds us that teaching young women God’s Word includes teaching them that working at home is in the core curriculum.

When I talk to women and they lament and say they “are only a homemaker”  I always say, “That is a high calling!”  There’s no shame in being in the home so that you can make it your priority.  But there’s also no need to feel ashamed that you work outside the home.  Sometimes it is necessary.  You may have to be more creative in how you make time for caring for the needs and the people in your home, but with the Lord’s help and wisdom, you can still be a keeper at home.

When my oldest daughter was four, we were so strapped financially.  Then a teaching opportunity was opened to me and it seemed like this would be the best way to help our situation.  However, the added stress it brought hardly justified my time away from our home!  Those are nine months that taught me that my heart was in my home and that is where I belonged. 

Later I had another time in my life when extra funds were needed because we had one daughter in college! Do you feel my pain?! I wasn’t free to go out and look for part time job, because the other daughter was in homeschool, and I also remembered the hard lesson I had learned years before. 

I prayed about it and the Lord brought to my mind a way I could work from home and bring in a little extra income.  I began a home-baking business.  While my daughter did her school work, I baked.  One day a week, I took my goods and sold them at the local banks, hair salons and medical offices.  God provided and I got to stay where my heart was – at home.

If your finances are tight, I’d encourage you to pray and ask God for the best way to prioritize your home.  There are lots of creative ways to earn money from home!

I’m reminded that it isn’t just young women who are needed to be keepers at home.  Nancy says in her book, 

No matter what our circumstances or season of life, home still matters for us women.  And we will diminish the impact of our ministry as believers if we allow home to become an afterthought or resist God’s call to be workers/keepers at home.

I think it’s easy for us to brush aside the truth that our ministry impact is affected if our home is an afterthought.  How can we use our homes to adorn the Gospel if we’re not watching over it? It’s doubtful that we will.

So if we’re keepers at home, what are we to “keep?”

• Our heart for the Person of Christ. Make sure He is at the center of every part of our home.  Honor Him in your choices of your time, your free time, the way you use your finances, your relationships, people you encounter at the store, etc.  
• Our heart for the purpose of the home – to display the Gospel.  Live out the Gospel as you love, forgive, show mercy and kindness. Apply that sound Doctrine to every area of family life.  Share the Gospel with your children. Open your home to share the Gospel with any that enter your doors.  
• Our priority for the people of our home – Husband, children, those outside the home
  • Time with our husband
  • Pouring into our children
  • Reaching out with the Gospel to others
• Our heart for the plans for  accomplishing the necessary tasks 
  • Meals are prepared – Groceries purchased
  • The home is clean and inviting (not necessarily Pinterest worthy, but managed and clean)
  • Finances – wisely using what God has provided

If this sounds like a lot…or maybe just too much, let me remind you that you have help in doing all of this!  It isn’t Merry Maids or your 7 children or your husband, (though the people there can certainly be helpers), but it’s the third person of the Godhead – the Holy Spirit of God. 

We have a Savior Who is preparing a home for us, and He is able to help you and me to make our homes a place that will comfort those who live there and point each one to the Gospel!

Do you have a heart for your home? With what areas do you need help in being a “Keeper at home?” Ask the Lord these questions and then watch how He directs, how He changes your desires, and how He brings in wisdom to help you be the Keeper of your home.

Here are a few posts about homemaking that might encourage you.