Working Hard at Home With Our Hands
“For ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another…that ye increase more and more; And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you” (1 Thessalonians 4:9-11). What wonderful verses for godly keepers at home to memorize and obey!
Loving God and loving others are the most important commands in the Bible. If we don’t love others, all of our work and good deeds are meaningless according to 1 Corinthians 13. What is love? It’s being longsuffering, kind, it does not behave itself unseemly, thinks no evil, bears all thing, believes all things, and many other actions listed in this chapter, plus it never fails. Do you have this kind of love towards your husband and are you satisfied with him, because the enemy of your soul will do everything he can to destroy your marriage? Don’t let him!
We are to “study to be quiet.” It’s not in most of our personalities as women to be quiet. I believe this should even include social media. We don’t need to give our strong opinions on every blog and Facebook page that we follow. We don’t have to quarrel with others to make them see that we are right. This shouldn’t be done with our husbands, either. We are commanded to have meek and quiet spirits. This means we don’t become agitated, upset, and angry easily. We trust that God is in control, so we live our lives in obedience to His will and trust Him that all things will work out together for good because we love Him and are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28).
We “do our own business.” Our business is in our homes, women, as keepers at home (Titus 2:5). We take good care of our husbands and children. We make sure their needs and more are being met. Our work in our homes is as valuable, if not more, than any job outside of the home that we could be doing or any paycheck we may receive. Don’t allow culture to convince you otherwise! As you lovingly care for your family, you are serving Christ! We also look well to the ways of our household and try to do the best of our ability to keep a clean and tidy home. God is a God of beauty and order, so let’s determine to be women of beauty and order.
We “work with our own hands.” We aren’t ashamed of hard work in the home. We are thankful for running water, toilets that need to be cleaned, dishes that need to be washed, diapers that need to be changed, and all of the other labor that it takes to run a home and care for a family. This is your high and holy calling from the Lord. He wants us to do all of these things for His glory!
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.
Colossians 3:23
19 thoughts on “Working Hard at Home With Our Hands”
This is another great post, Lori! I’m glad for the high and holy calling of being a wife, mother, and keeper at home. Your posts keep me encouraged and inspired to do my best for Jesus! Thank you!
I loved this!! My favorite part was addressing women to be meek on social media as well as out in the world. I come to your page often and see even the Christian women arguing and bickering with anyone they do not agree with. This is a great reminder for them. Also, so much work is needed to be done in the home and care for the children and I feel many women are abandoning their duties just to sit on social media all day. Keep doing the Lord’s work! I very much enjoy your posts as they work well as reminders of how we as women should be a acting and spending our time.
This was lovely, Lori. Thank you.
I definitely have to confess where I was wrong on this blog. Following after KAK, and getting emotional was sin on my part. My sincere apologies to her.
I totally agree!! I do work outside the home but I always make sure my family is taken care of as well. Honestly, I enjoy being the “keeper of my home” even though our boys are now grown but still live at home. Social media well I just won’t bicker with anyone, if I don’t like what I read I keep scrolling lol I always enjoy your posts & thoughts!
Amen Lori!
I currently work because we don’t have children yet. I 100% plan to be home full time with them once we are blessed with children.
But today I learned that a coworker is pregnant- she entered her 2nd trimester this week. She told me she spent the morning looking at daycare for her child.
This baby is the size of a lemon. H/She won’t be here until Christmas, as my coworker will be on maternity leave until February 2020. But they are ALREADY looking for a place to put the child when she returns to work. Already!!
I went from feeling so happy for her to just rock bottom sad, all over the course of about 30 seconds.
I understand that some people NEED to work. Maybe they have large medical bills or they are caring for a family member and that second income is necessary. But it is still just heartbreaking that the first thing you do when learning you’re pregnant is celebrate; then you look for someone else to watch your child.
Keeping a home is hard work so it’s always amusing to me to hear someone say, “Oh, she’s at home all day. She doesn’t work.” My back and hands would disagree!
Doing my own business is easy. My family alone is more drama than I can take. The last thing I look for is someone else’s drama!
My biggest challenge is keeping quiet. I started out as meek as a lamb, but that all changed. Looking back, I can see it was a cry for attention because my parents didn’t give me any. Then, I had a friend who never let a thought of hers not be expressed and I absorbed quite a bit of that bad behavior. I have to literally bite my lower lip at times to teach myself to shut my mouth! I have really challenged myself to do this in the past year, but I have a long ways to go. It’s so hard to unlearn bad habits!
Sadly, most young mothers think they have to go back to work. They don’t even know there’s an option for wanting to be home full time with their children. In fact, Glamour magazine had an article that encouraged young mothers to go back to work quickly after having their babies so they don’t get too attached. Tragic!
I’m an “older woman” now, my sons are grown.
I was recently working outside the home and I was heartbroken by all the co-worker mothers with very young children in day care. They all seemed so frazzled and stressed all the time.
They dropped their babies off at 630 am, and picked them up at 630 PM. These babies are in day care 12 hours a day. Not counting the time driving there and back. Often, there were calls that the baby was fussy, maybe sick. One mother, whose child had frequent ear infections, left to take the baby to the Dr, then when the baby was found to have an ear in infection, but no fever, she took him back to daycare and came back to work.
I also noticed the young mothers didn’t visit the babies at the onsite day care during lunch or breaks. They said the children would cry if they did so.
My heart always hurt for all of them.
Also, I learned that the term “daycare” has now become “school”, as I was corrected on this by the young mother co- workers!
Yay to all the mothers at home with your children!
A final comment, even tho I was working outside the home when my children were grown, I’m now back home. I love homemaking and looking after my husband full time! It is a great joy!
Meek and quiet spirit…. definitely something I need to work on!
I love a good argument, I can easily waste far too much time debating on social media, and it’s my favourite way of rewarding myself for getting all the housework done. My husband has no interest in politics whatsoever, so social media fills that gap for me.
I am meek and quiet when it counts – so I know how to do it – I just need to be more aware of working it into my daily life, all the time.
Mara & Debby,
I appreciate your hearts so much. Admitting personal struggles is difficult, but will point others to Christ much more effectively than fault finding and “great reminder for them” sentiments towards others.
I have always been challenged with household routines and keeping up with all that needs done each week, and also very aware of my love of socializing, so I’ve never started a FB account in order to avoid the distraction I know it would be for me. This attitude towards social media has positively rubbed off on my oldest children-while they have IG accounts, they only post occasionally.
The 1 Thessalonians reference Lori taught on today is one of my favorites, and I’ve never been able to rationalize the use of social media due to the time investment, but mostly in regards to “being quiet” and “doing our own business”. The ESV version urges us to “aspire to live quietly and mind our own affairs”, which seems to be in opposition to posting pictures and daily events of our family to others online, which has become a popular practice in society today. I’ve had several friends close their accounts and never look back, more peaceful, and certainly not missing the angst and bickering.
However, I’m sure many use social media platforms to be a light and share Christ’s love, which I admire in today’s dark world.
Thank you, Lori, for your ongoing encouragement to women to live lives pleasing to the Lord!
We don’t need to and in fact, shouldn’t voice every thought or opinion we have. There is wisdom in silence. “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry…” James 1:19
Beyond that, for the women who are single but looking to marry, men tend to find discreet women mysterious, classy and attractive. It makes them wonder what’s going through your mind.
That article was a horrible testament to the times we live in!
The legacy we leave our family is the most important one!
I have seen many people try to use social media to share God’s love, and it usually backfires. So many people are on social media purely to cause conflict, and these posts always get attacked and mocked. Sure, you can block people, but more come.
My husband hates social media because of the nature of it – to cause conflict, dissent, jealousy etc. People show pictures of their “best” and it’s so easy to look at them and feel envy etc. and think this is what they’re like all the time and I’m way inferior to them because today I’m having a bad day, I’ve been up all night with sick kids, I’m still in my dressing gown on my 4th coffee to try to wake up, and there’s a picture of them all smiling and happy without a hair out of place.
Social media is actually really bad, and my husband hates it. It’s impossible to only have feelings of peace when on there – there’s too much negativity and all sorts on there. I really need to give it up. I think I would be happier, and much more productive in my home. Sadly, however, I’m addicted.
KAK,
You are very wise in your observation of social media. If we are to study being quiet, meek, gentle, and obedient then as women we should abstain from agitating influences on FB, etc. Yes, Lori may be a voice in the wilderness on there, but many posters foster contention and loudness. I’m grateful too for my husband’s encouragement that I stay off FB. For me, it was a negative influence. It’s a hard habit to break but if you change your daily schedule it helps. I went for a lot of walks (without phone) to try to kick the habit. And I can get my Lori fix on this website. I wish you peace. My only wish is that Lori could run a teaching chatroom not on Facebook.
I agree with the hope for Lori to run a teaching chatroom that’s not on FB, as I’m not on there, either. Not that Lori doesn’t have enough on her plate already… 🙂 Although I do so appreciate the posts on here that we can interact on as needed in the comments section. I try to visit this blog every day, as it always leaves me with something to pray and grow on. Thank you, Lori, and everyone else for all your wisdom, humility, and feedback. God bless!
Thank you Mara. I appreciate this immensely and wish I had seen this when you wrote it, rather than now (a couple of weeks later).