Why I'm Raising a Homemaker (I think this is the longest article I've ever written!)
June 4th, 2010
I am a peacemaker.
By my very nature I want everything to be okay and everyone to get along and sing in harmony while fluttering along with the butterflies….while eating cupcakes.
I do not like conflict. I do not even like the possibility of conflict. But alas, one cannot escape it…and that is not a bad thing (repeat over and over self, “conflict isn’t always bad”). It is with a sincere and “peacemaking” heart that I write the following…
A sweet friend had some wonderful questions about my decision to raise a homemaker. I have decided to post the questions and my answers for any of you who be interested in *my* thoughts on the raising homemakers…
1. Would you still encourage your daughters to go to college?
I don’t know. How I feel about college so far on my journey is that we will not be talking a lot about it because it is not our focus for our daughters. If we are raising them to be homemakers I don’t want to send them off to college and strap them with debt that they (or their husbands) will have to pay off. So many women have to work so they can pay off college debts. Also, I’d rather them spend their time focusing on serving the church, ministering to others, and continuing in their life and homemaking skills…on a more practical level. This is no way means that they will not have an education! Some of the most educated women I have come across have not been schooled at a college (see Jasmine Baucham and be blown away). Would I stop my daughters from going to college? Probably not (could I even?). There are so many options for education in between! I will love my children no matter what life path they choose. For a wonderful explanation about how I feel about the college thing, read this: Should a Young Woman Go to College?
2. What if they want to pursue careers? What if God has instilled a deep desire in them to fight social injustice, climb Mt. Everest, start their own company, become a professor, train as a veterinarian, go into the military? Would these clash with this idea of homemaker?
If my daughters want to pursue careers outside the home that is their choice. I will encourage, teach, and train them as homemakers with the hope that they will choose to stay home and raise their children throughout the day, side by side teaching, discipling, educating, and mentoring. I think a homemaker can fight social injustice, climb Mt. Everest, start their own company, and be a professor to their children! A woman, as we all know, is capable of many things, it doesn’t mean she has to do them working a job outside the home. I would not encourage military service as a soldier, ever (and yes, my sister is in the army).
3. What can we do to prepare women whose children have left the nest, who need to go back into the workforce, or find themselves called into work beyond the home?
Women whose children have left the nest can dedicate themselves to ministry! ”Washing the saints feet,” “ministering to the poor,” “teaching and training younger women…” or working alongside her husband. The body of Christ needs women!
4. Does one need to be based at home 24/7 to be termed a “homemaker”?
No.
5. Don’t many of the skills one gains in the “career world” directly impact one’s ability to be an “intentional homemaker”? Time management, discipline, organizational skills, strategic thinking, networking, dealing with conflict….
Yes! There are skills that can certainly be used from the “career world” to help anyone in life. However, with regards to managing a home well, there definitely needs to be additional, intentional training (just ask most any stay-at-home mom who wasn’t trained in the homemaking arts!).
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I believe it is God’s call for women to be home, not working a career outside the home. I also believe (and reality dictates) that things in life are not cut and dry. Therefore we as women need to love each other as sisters in Christ without condemnation…on either side of the “debate.”
Here’s the thing, it doesn’t so much matter what we think, it matters what God says.
There are many women out there, including my gracious, brilliant writer friend, who can write a much better article then I on perhaps why a woman should be able to work and not be raised solely as a homemaker. But this is what I know:
“Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” Titus 2:3-5
I believe God when He says that women should be “working at home” so that His word would not be “reviled (or blasphemed).”
I think Jennie Chancey puts it well when she says,
“How does a woman blaspheme the Word of God? This isn’t something we can just brush aside or take lightly as a “cultural thing.” St. Paul evidently believed it would be obvious enough to his readers that he didn’t need to say, “Leaving the home and going out into the workforce is sin,” as Rev. Sandlin seems to think is necessary in order for us to avoid Phariseeism. But do we need such bald statements in order to understand St. Paul? Apparently, blaspheming God’s Word involves doing the opposite of what St. Paul has just exhorted women to do: be “reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things — that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands.” Going to the Greek again, the word for “homemaker” used here is oikouros, which literally means “guard or watcher of the house.” Thayer’s Lexicon renders the meaning “keeping at home and taking care of household affairs.” A woman cannot both “keep at home” (or “guard the house”) and “keep” in a separate workplace.” Responding to Titus 2 Cynics
God made a woman to be Adams helper-completer – she came from him and was for him. God made our bodies to grow life…He made our bodies to then nurture that life from our breasts. He gave us a good and noble call to love our husbands and children and work at home…why? So we could be free to tend to our children’s souls day in and day out without the pressures of a “job.” So we could manage a household well in order to invite people in – to show and share the love of Christ with hospitality, minister to those in need, disciple our children, and so much more!
We may be gifted and skilled in many areas, but I think we can be creative and learn how to use those giftings to serve God without forgoing our place in the home.
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I know that many of the things I said here will offend or hurt some of you out there. I hate that. I do not have that intention whatsoever, I am just speaking to where I am at right now. I am always learning and seeking truth…and falling hard into grace.
Thanks for reading.
An excellent post and certainly interesting comments (although I do find it interesting that one woman’s personal opinion about what she’s learned on her own journey can raise the ire of other women.)I agree that as women it’s important to be trained to be homemakers and (if so desired) be able to get some form of higher education. Honestly, many important skills (canning, sewing, for some even cooking)our mothers took for granted are no longer known by modern women. I personally believe these are important skills to know again.
As far as college is concerned, my own daughters are choosing technical career paths (one who’s BS will be earned entirely online) which honestly will give them the opportunity to work in their fields, but also options should they ever choose to work from home. I think there are many options for higher learning today that don’t necessarily require living on a campus or going to a school “away”.
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I think the great thing about being a christian is we are constantly learnin and growing. As you know my opinion has really changed over the years and flip floped back and forth but I know if we really seek God and ask him what he would like us to do he will show us. I know he certainly did for me!…
I didn’t go to college as you know, though After I was married I had an amazing good paying job that I got from working hard. I am not saying College is wrong but I know i couldn’t have stayed at home if i had gone to college because now only 3 years after we were married I am a stay at home mom. I am thankfuly God guided me and that my husband and I are debt free so I can stay at home because i have NO dout this is what he has called me to do!
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So, I decided to read some of the comments. Great conversation! Even though, I personally am on the homemaker side. It’s very important that we also encourage those women who work outside the home. Not every woman who works outside the home does so because she wants to. Sometimes, it is out of necessity. Being a career woman is a whole different story. As for college education, I don’t believe that a woman needs it to get by in life. The most valuable lessons are learned through life experience. But, a college education is not a bad thing to have under one’s belt. Right now, I am pursuing a college degree (without taking on debt). I think that it is very wise to prepare one’s self for the future. We don’t know what the future holds; only GOD does. If my husband were to become ill, injured, or die, having an education would give me better opportunities to get a decent job. As for life insurance, I am a firm believer in having it. Yes, we are to trust GOD in everything. But, we should also use wisdom and be good stewards too. When someone dies, there are expenses such as possible medical bills, burial & funeral fees, etc. that would need to be taken care of. Life insurance takes care of that. Yes life insurance can get you by for awhile, but it will run out. We can rely on the church & family to help for awhile. But, we cannot expect the church or family to take care of us in the long term. I very firmly believe that a woman must know how to not only be dependent, but also independent as well.
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And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy hose, and on thy gates. Deuteronomy 6:5 &7
Love you! Love your heart.
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Hi, Mrs. Sarah Mae!
Thank you so much for linking to my blog, and for your incredibly sweet words! I really enjoyed reading your post, and the sweet spirit behind it -whenever I read your blog, I’m reminded that I need to work so much more on measuring my words with grace and charity: you really seem to have that down. ;-)
I wanted to comment because, reading the comment section, I saw a lot of questions about what a daughter would do during those “in-between” years: once she has graduated high school, what if she doesn’t automatically get married by the time she’s eighteen or twenty? What if she doesn’t get married until she’s twenty-nine or thirty-two? What if she doesn’t get married at all? Wouldn’t those homemaking skills go to waste?
I am twenty, and I’m what some would call a “stay-at-home daughter.” I have chosen to live at home under the covering of my family until marriage, so I kind of “specialize” in answering the “what can a girl do in between?” question (writing a book about it, actually). I am a junior in an online college program. I am an aspiring author who just signed her first publishing contract last month. I am finished with the first draft of my first book and working on my second. I ran my dad’s online store (he is a pastor/evangelist/author) from sixteen to nineteen, and by the time we outsourced, I was taking care of 100 orders a week. After I have my B.A., I would love to start working on an English curriculum to tutor homeschoolers in my area.
And, most importantly, I have a family to serve -five brothers, four of whom are five and under -homeschool lessons to help with (I teach my three-year-old brother while Mama teaches my five-year-old brother), meal-plans to write up, laundry to keep going… I am my mom’s helper, and I’m loving the on-the-job training. I don’t assume that I will be married someday -the ratio of women to men in American is 2 to 1, and, as a black woman, I know that 46% of women of my particular ethnicity will never get married. But I trust that, if it’s God’s will to send me a husband, it only takes one man to come along. :) If not, I have a full life -I could ask for nothing more than the opportunities the Lord has opened up for me here.
I don’t want to write a second article in the comment section here, but I just wanted to offer my perspective as one of these “homemaker in training” daughters. I wasn’t raised to live at home until marriage -up until my sophomore year in high school, I was planning on going off to school as far as Oxford University in England to pursue my love for literature, or NYU to pursue my interest in film (now I realize how incredibly ambitious that sounds -haha). But the Lord has given me such a peace in changing my focus and shifting my perspective, and I couldn’t be happier where I am right now -I never would have imagined it. My parents have been so supportive and patient as I’ve weighed my options over the years.
If I don’t get married for ten years -if I never get married -I plan on continuing to develop those Proverbs 31 skills to bless my family, church, and community. If I have a homeward focus during singleness, and end up remaining single, I have lost nothing -I have gained practical skills that have helped me to have a full life at home doing what I love with the people I love! If I spend my time only investing in those passions that have nothing to do with my home and end up married, I have lost much time of preparation.
At least, that’s how I look at it. ;)
Thanks again for such a stellar post, Sarah Mae!
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I can only speak for myself here.
I was a single mother for 10 years. I then married when my daughter was 11, I was 32 and my husband was 35. Having so much time to myself, learning how to be independent, made it extremely difficult for me to submit to my husband’s role of leader.
While I desperately wanted to be home the whole time I was forced to work (as a consequence of my own poor choices), I still was an independent woman. *I* could support *myself!* I didn’t need him to help me decide *anything!* Why should I ask his opinion? *I* could think for myself! I didn’t neeeeed him and he’d better behave like he knew it.
Poor guy. It’s better now, with daily repentance before God on my part and forgiveness on my husband’s part. ;-) Having been told by the world that I *had* to be independent. That I *had* to be in charge. That *I* was the woman! I’m expected to bring home that bacon and fry it up in a pan. *sigh* Women’s lib has done me no favors.
Yes, it’s a good thing to know you can support yourself if you have to. It’s a good thing to be self-sufficient. I’m not arguing that at all. I just know that, for me, the transition from “independent woman the world approved of” to “homemaker living by God’s design, now reviled by the world” was an excruciating process. For everyone.
I don’t know what my point is. Just thinking “out loud” I guess. Thoughts are welcome.
I don’t have a daughter (yet!), but am praying for a wife for my son – he is only 4, but I remember praying for a spouse from a very young age… I pray that he will marry a young lady one day who will be “raised as a homemaker” :) If we have a daughter some day I will def remember this post – very encouraging and well written. Thank You! ~ Meg @ Life Together
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Sarah Mae,
Thank you for this discussion. As I read your post, my heart resonated with so much of what you say. I am a college-educated, post graduate degree-holding, former litigator who put that all behind me when my first child (a little girl) was born. And now that we have two daughters, my husband and I are seriously discussing what we hope for them when they have completed our K-12 homeschooling adventure.
While my heart is still somewhat torn on whether I would want them to have some formal college training, just for the “what if” scenarios repeated above (widowhood, etc.), I know from personal experience that the drive to be the consummate “career woman” will likely just leave them with regret if they later decide to “come home.” Regret over the massive loan debt they have accumulated, regret over the significant time they have spent learning skills that have little to no bearing on being a Godly wife and mom, regret over the fact that for how educated they are, they have really no knowledge of how to raise their children and run a home. I experience these regrets quite frequently. I know at the very least though, we will encourage them not to enter into fields that put such a load of debt over their heads, like medical school or in some cases law school (thankfully my final loan debt is something my husband’s pay can handle), that might make it very difficult, if not financially impossible, for them to come home.
Just some thoughts from someone who’s of a similar mindset as you are now – thank you for sharing!
Sara Mae, your thoughts are refreshing, and yes, controversial. But way to go on being bold and sharing candidly. By the way, you write beautifully!
I have been in a long, evolving process of unpacking the meaning of Titus 2 for myself and the impact on my call as well as how it ought to affect training up my children. It is like digging out of a boxed packed with odds and ends trying to find the treasure at the bottom. I’ve had to weed through what I’ve been taught (of this world) and experienced (the college and career path) to uncover God’s way (Titus 2)and His priorities for me, as a woman to raise my children, care for my home, and love my husband.
The result of studying Titus 2, segement by segement this year on my blog (http://www.extravagantgrace.net/2009/12/becoming-titus-2-in-2010.html), is three-fold:
1. I have decided to homeschool my oldest daughter next year, with the focus on discipleship training, homemaker mentoring, life-skill equipping, under-girded with an in-depth study in what it means to have a Biblical worldview. She is entering 6th grade, and I honestly believe it is a fantastic opportunity to prepare her for her future as a intelligent, capable, compassionate, homemaker.
2. God has seriously focused my heart for ministry. I realized that the reason I care so deeply for women is that I care even more deeply for teenage girls. I want to equip women to mentor the next generation. There needs to be more women digging deep into the Word and apply Biblical principles personally, so they can in turn train their daughters as well as the young gals at their church and in their neighborhoods. Teen girls are so hungry for this. Each week my living room is filled with dozen or more seeking answers, like the ones I address on http://refreshplace.blogspot.com. There need to more ladies answering these questions from God’s Word and not the world’s standard.
3. I’ve quit being wonder woman, trying to it all as God has drawn my heart home to focus on raising my family. It is why retired from a call that I can fill later on — http://www.extravagantgrace.net/2010/06/retiring-wonder-woman.html.
Yikes. You’ve fired me up once again. Keep on keeping on in this mission to raise homemakers inspired by Titus 2. If we lose this, we risk losing the next generation for Christ.
With much support,
Lisa
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I thank God for you, Sarah Mae. Thank you for your encouragement!
A quick response to question #5: Because I lacked this intentional training in the homemaking arts, I find myself having to train myself as I train my daughter. A difficult feat, indeed! I praise God. He gave me this calling, and He is equipping me. :)
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Just wanted to stop in and say AMEN!!! As Christians we must live counter cultural lives and this is a very important part of that!
One thing I have to say as I read some of the comments,( for instance about how being part of the workforce ” works for our family” or “obeying God’s calling”)….is one must remember that the Lord will NEVER contradict his Word! If you “feel” like you are doing God’s will for you life and family, yet it goes against scripture then I fear you are listening the wrong voice.
I know for our family after much reading of the Word and prayer, the Holy Spirit laid it upon us that we must raise virtuous women and strong courageous men. And I don’t believe you can come to those results going against God’s Word. Is it hard? oh yeah! But God is good all the time!!! And the number one thing I teach my daughters is to Glorify the Lord in all you do and he will bless you and your work! Even if that work is folding socks:))
As my eyes have been opened after reading the Botkin Sisters’ book “So Much More” it is plain to see how blinding feminism really is…even, or maybe especially, for those raised in the church. I wish your message would be taught from the pulpit of every church in America and people would realize how far we have strayed from God’s original design. The Truth is so freeing! Thank you for getting the Word out!
Wow! Excellent post Sarah! I agree with you 100%. My Dad would not allow me to go to college if I was going to go in debt. I saved up money to go and then when my car broke down I couldn’t go to college. At first I was disappointed, but now I am SO THANKFUL for his boundaries that have saved my husband & I so much money now that I am a full time stay at home Mom and my husband is a full time pastor.
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Sarah Mae,
I usually enjoy your conservative view points, but I feel like you are off based here. It does not say in Titus that women MUST work at home.
If it weren’t for women, who would be nurses in this world. I spent 4 years of college becoming a GREAT pediatric nurse…if it weren’t for women, there would be very few nurses and NO ONE to care for children. I feel like GOD CALLED ME to be a nurse. In college, I also took many marriage and family classes, etc. that made me more prepared to raise my family.
I understand your strong views on raising our girls to know how to care for a home. I agree with that, but I think it is doing them an injustice to not encourage them to learn something such as nursing…which requires a college degree. There are many fabulous things that women can learn that equip them to BETTER care for their families BECAUSE they went to college.
I am trying not to take personal offense to this, as I understand your heart is good…but, I think you have not well thought out this post.
Also, has it been mentioned that spending your traditional college years of 18-22, caring for YOURSELF will teach you how to manage a family. There are so many life lessons that can be learned (ie-learning to cook your own meals, do your own laundry, pay bills) that can teach you to be prepared for motherhood and to be a wife later.
That said, what about the women in the Bible who God speaks about are never to marry. What are they supposed to do? It would be so sad for these women to not use their natural inclination to be a caretaker by either working as a nurse, teacher, etc.
Even if my daughter and future twins do not want to go to college, they most certainly will need to learn to be their own providers in some way. How else can they afford health insurance? They cannot rely on mom and dad forever for such things (the law states only until age 26).
Please hear my heart. I love your values, but please consider more into this thought of yours. I would encourage you to read more biblically into this as I feel like you are somewhat missing the mark.
Sarah
Sarah A´s last blog post … To be a mother…
Hi Sarah – I have an Ella as well! I do need to think through some of these things more, for sure! I really appreciate your perspective!
Yes! As a stay at home mom of soon to be 3 and married as a young woman (age 19) I chose not to go to college before getting married because I knew that I wanted to have children soon and did not want to be strapped with college debt. Sometimes I have felt less than because of that choice but this article was encouraging in that I think I made the right choice for me. Thank you for your boldness!
Hi there, I am from the UK. As a single (never-married) Christian woman in her late 40s who works full-time for the church in both a professional and voluntary capacity, this post makes for fascinating reading. Because it completely ignores women like me. ;) (And, no, I am NOT a pastor, if anyone was wondering.)
I am grateful for so many other women, both single and married, who work outside the home. I am profoundly grateful, for example, to be able to make an appointment with a FEMALE doctor, not a male one, about gynaecological issues.
I have carefully studied American movements like Vision Forum and I find them very worrying. I respect many conservative Christians in the US but VF seems extreme and even cult-ish to me. Among the many VF teachings that I question is encouraging daughters to ‘give their hearts to their fathers’ … a practice that is found absolutely nowhere in Scripture and which I find deeply questionable, since according to the Bible only a wife is to have that special place in her husband’s heart. (We don’t encourage sons to ‘give their hearts to their mothers’ -!! )
I’ve read stuff by and about the Botkin sisters and I find their stance a very sad one, as much as they protest to the contrary (naturally). I think they are both in their late 20s. High time for them to fly the nest. Maybe they will one day. I hope so. Any decent Christian parent would let them go.
Same goes for the gorgeous young African-American woman above who wrote that she will stay at home forever even if she doesn’t get married. It’s a shame she didn’t pursue that dream to study English at Oxford. ;)
You can still be a loving, faithful daughter to your parents when you leave home, honey.
I am. :)
Respectfully, in Christ,
Philippa
SarahMae,
Thank you for writing your bold, uncomprimising post. I am a 28-year-old daughter of the home. My Father has a heart for mission, so I actually work in ministry full-time for my church while still participating and contributing to family life and affairs. I wish I hadn’t gone to college, but I did. We (my parents and I) realized that it was important for me to return home after those years. Fortunately for me, I was homeschooled from birth-grade 12 so I already had an amazing foundation and my public college years weren’t able to rustle my feathers.
I will not push college unto my own daughters and if they want to get a BA, I’ll offer them the College Plus route that my younger sister is doing which allows her to be a daughter of the home, while still continueing her education.
I am thankful each and everyday for the headcovering, protection and godly direction from my parents. As a single person, I love being home, if I never marry I will continue loving home life!
Bless you for your words,
Hannah
At one time I would have been deeply offended by what you have written. But as I’ve grown older and have more perspective on my life and how I’ve lived it, I tend to agree with you more than disagree with you. I was in the Army at the time of both my children’s births. Wanted to get out, but circumstances prevented that happening. When I became a single parent, I made the financially devastating choice to leave the military. It was the best choice ever. I was poor and I still had to work outside the home, but I was home each and every night and all weekends and had a job that knew that I was a mother and would need to be flexable at times with my working hours.
I’ve always been grateful that I had the skill set to be able to raise my children and provide a home for them without their father being in the picture. And by doing that, I was a homemaker who also worked outside the home. I chose not to date during their growing up years because I didn’t want to add any chaos to our lives. So when I finally found a worthy man to marry, my children were grown and almost grown.
I continue to work outside the home. And I provide service to people. And I make lots of food from scratch, I knit, and I can quilt a pretty dandy blankie. I like to think I’m living my life showing how you can be a homemaker and the breadwinner at the same time. It’s not easy, but it can be done. I would have preferred being home and at the time of my children’s births I was sitting mighty high on my pity pot. But when my husband turned out to be not who I thought he was, it was an enormous blessing that I already was working so I could continue to provide. And I’m pretty sure God understands my story and everyone elses stories as well.
I appreciate your willingness to stand up against the lies that modern society pushes on women. The lie that a career is the key to success The lie that women can have everything and that they deserve everything.
Training young girls to care for their families is certainly excellent and pleasing to the Lord. However, reading Proverbs 31 and Titus 2 with an open heart does not seem to point towards women as homemakers ONLY. I think women who desire to go to college need to make smarter and more Godly decisions before choosing a collegiate path. Pick a degree that can be used for the glory of God. Choose a way without going into debt. Choose to learn skills that can bless your family and community someday. Choose a career that can easily be put on hold when your children are small and that has part-time options for when they are in school.
As a married graduate student, my husband both encourages me to pursue my doctorate, but insists that I hold the dream loosely if God should call me home. Academia is a dark place, but that is no reason for us to run from it. Bring Jesus’s light into the darkest corners of the earth and the most corrupt, god-hating parts of culture!
I am a stay-at-home, homemaking, homeschooling mom so I am not offended by this post or attitude, but frankly and with all due respect, it makes me want to give up on being a Christian!
To make the choices we woman have be so narrow, so rigid, I just don’t know. If I tried to figure it all out (the mind and will of God for us, that is) I’d simply run whimpering into the closet to hide. I can’t do it. It’s too big, too much, too hard.
Dresses or no dresses? Head coverings or no? Can I cut my hair? Wear makeup and jewelery? Teach or even speak in church? I just don’t know!!
Truly every time I come across these black and white posts on the web, I want to give up on trying to live my life to please God, because I obviously can’t. Ya’ll are making it too hard.
I enjoyed reading your post, and it’s nice to see different points of view regarding parenting and bringing up children. Though I would have to disagree with you about college. I think that my years as a student made me appreciate the domestic arts. I’m glad to have gotten a taste of both worlds and am thankful that my mother raised me to follow my bliss, rather than follow her bliss (she was a homemaker).
I will agree that it’s crazy for women to think they can have it all. I think a lot of strife happens when women try to be everything–career, homemaker, mother. I’m taking off for the early years of my son’s life and devoting myself to him until he goes to school. That’s what I feel is best for our family. Best of luck to you!
As someone who worked in the workforce for the first year of my marriage I can tell you that it is not all it’s cracked up to be. I ALWAYS felt that in order to fulfill one role the way it was supposed to be fulfilled, that I had to make sacrifices in the other. For example, when my lesson plans (I was a teacher) were at their best, the students were getting things back very quickly, etc., my house was often messy and dinner usually consisted of fast food or something microwaveable. I’ve been home since I had my daughter, and I can only hope and pray that if she marries and has children that she will be a homemaker. It’s ironic. The world teaches women that we have to be “equal” to men with regard to career (and just about everything else). I have both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. It has only been since making my home and family my full-time job though, that I finally feel like I have found my calling. I finally feel like I am doing what God has called me to do.
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I love this comment. I totally agree.
Prairie Chick´s last blog post … A Fixed Gaze.
Let me start by saying I have truly enjoyed exploring your blog!! Love it. My main comment would be – I have a 7 year old daughter that I am teaching about life’s choices. That being a mommy is a great experience, calling and blessing. And that they choices she makes for a career effect that job as a mommy. She recently told me she wants to be a pilot for the Navy. I told her it was a really great and impressive choice. I also asked her if she wanted to be a mommy…and what she would do if she had to deploy. Because the Navy just doesnt’ care that you are a mommy.
When it comes to college or a career or whatever. I do want to put this out there. What if they never get married? What if they get married, have a mortgage, 4 kids and something happens to their husband? I went to college. Sometimes I wonder why I did it…was it a waste? And then I realize – if something terrible – God forbid – happened to my husband and left me a sinle mother. I know I have the education and experience and tools to provide for my family. Yes, we believe that God will protect and provide and bless us. But I think God also asks us as women to learn practical skills to prepare for the unknown.
Thank for sharing. I think your perspective is a real blessing.