Happy Homemaking

A New Year can bring new exciting hope and possibilities to a home. I love being in my home---especially when it is clean and organized. There is so much to do in the home, the possibilities to be creative are endless! This year I am embarking upon new waters as I seriously take upon myself a 'massive organizational project' which will make our home run much more efficiently. I've never run a home with so many people---ten, which of course includes our two baby twins---as I grew up as an only child who watched her mother run a home for only three! My mother would surely chuckle if she could see me now with all the different responsibilities I bear, but I know that the Lord has given me the enthusiasm this year to conquer my space and time and make it work the best way for me and my lifestyle.

I revel in the fact that the Lord has created my home to be my domain. It is truly a safe haven for me to be here all day and for my children to be in a safe, protected environment as they learn their way into adulthood. My creative juices begin flowing as I browse a good cookbook or skim the pages of a decorating magazine. Homemaking skills are a lost art today in our modern culture and to be ignorant in them is a dishonor to womanhood! We were created to do this very thing as we see beautifully illustrated to us in Proverbs 31 and all throughout the Bible. The very comforts of home rely upon those very skills and many institutions of refinement rely wholeheartedly upon them.

If we were not taught to 'keep house' when we were daughters in our own homes, don't dismay! There are boundless sources of researching tools available today to us from the library to the internet. 

(Check out Flylady). 

There is no reason under the sun why we cannot better our homes for the glory of God and for our precious loved ones. It is one more reason we should be lovingly teaching our daughters how to 'keep' their fathers homes, so they will be fully equipped when they are sent to take care of their own homes one day.

Does this mean our homes will be spotless all the time? Of course not! Children exist and life happens, that is the reality. But we must remember that our priorities lie not in the cleaning and ordering of the home, but instead with the people that live within that home. For example, we should not get so caught up in our cleaning that we are neglecting our family and their needs for the sake of cleaning. 

We shouldn't yell at our children when they are making a mess of all our hard work and we should not get so angry at our husbands should they happen to leave their clothes on the floor instead of putting them away. It is much better that our homes are not perfect than to have quarreling and strife in our relationships with those most important to us. 

It is within our hearts that the first cleaning must begin! And from it a home that is filled with the spirit of peace, love, order, joy will come forth...a place where Christ is center.