Baby Steps - Day 7 to Being a Purposeful Home Keeper

I am loving the responses to this series along with great questions! Keep them coming!

There was great joy when each one of our five grandkiddos started to take those sweet little baby steps. Not one of them jumped up from the crawl and took off running. They would take those tiny steps, fall down, get up, and try again.

Of course, us older folk would be right there cheering them on, clapping for them and telling them, "Come on – you can do it!"

Baby steps are important. Every woman who learned how to be purposeful as a home keeper took them.

That’s the heart of this series is to encourage a willing woman to take baby steps forward to being on purpose as a home keeper so that she can create a home that is sanctuary.

The baby steps I’ve mentioned have been purposed to lay a foundation – almost like building a home. A home needs a good foundation. When you build a home you start with the foundation – not the walls – not the stuff inside.

Some of the foundational issues I’ve addressed are:
The need to make a heart attitude assessment.

Understanding that God gave the woman the role of bringing order and establishing peace in her home.

Understanding that home is to be that place of sanctuary and peace providing restoration of the soul for the family.

Considering those sanctuary robbers.

Understanding the need to manage time margins.

Character over convenience

Attitude is just about everything

Understanding the husband’s role as God’s authority in the home

Benefits to the marriage being a purposeful home keeper

This morning’s Baby Step topic is to address one more reason why a woman would want to become purposefully as a home keeper – reap reward as a home keeper and find joy as a home keeper so that sanctuary can be created.

This topic has to do with the Simple Home Principles that I wrote about here.

The two main principles – the first involves the external: de-clutter, minimize and organize the spaces in the home so as to have a sense of simple living - of peaceful living - one unencumbered by unnecessary "stuff" that only needs to be managed and the second has to do with "the internal: a woman's heart attitude toward her home.

If a woman doesn't like being home, there's a slim chance she'll like her home. If a woman spends much time away from home (granted many women work outside the home), she'll struggle finding out who she is within her home.

If a woman compares her home with another woman's home, she'll struggle with appreciating what she's been given to make a home with.

If a woman doesn't understand God's heart toward the home, her God-given ability to influence from her home and that she's the heart of the home, then it will be difficult for her to make her home that sanctuary of peace which IS the foundation of the Simple Home."

Today’s assignment is for you revisit your role – as a wife, mother, and home keeper. Think about your home being your realm of influence. Think of your role being like the heart of the home.

Ask yourself: is the way I function in my role a blessing or a burden to my husband?

Ask yourself: does the heart of my husband trust me? Is he confident that I will have him in mind during the day as I prepare my home to be sanctuary for him when he walks in the door? Or, will disaster (no dinner, dirty kids, un-done, overwhelmed, complaining and anxious wife) hit him the moment he walks in from the war of the world?

Ask yourself: what would peace look like in my home and then what is my role in establishing that peace?

As you ask yourself these questions – keep this in mind: the some of a husband’s role is to create and establish vision for his home, communicate that vision and lead his family forward in that vision. He’s to be the provider and protector and spiritual leader. How do you help or hinder that?

See ya tomorrow!

Baby Steps - Day 7 to Being a Purposeful Home Keeper

http://lylahledner.blogspot.com/2008/06/baby-steps-day-7-to-being-purposeful.html