Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Baby Steps - Day 12

It's day 12 of our Baby Steps to Becoming a Purposeful Home Keeper.

I’ve always taken advantage to learn from older women who discipled,/mentored me and who where womanly role models.

Along my life’s journey, I’ve taken lots of little tid bits from different women I’ve been privileged to be close to. Sandy (my mom), Nancy, Muriel, Edna (the neighborhood lady on Marshall Street – in Lancaster, PA – when I was a five year old), Ruth (my grandma), Dorothy (my grandmother) are just a few of the women who’ve spoken into my heart.

I would always ask them questions like: What do you do? How do you do it? When do you do it? How have you created sanctuary? I’d want to know about their successes and I’d want to learn from their failures. I’d ask what they believed was the most important thing a woman should know in being a wife, mother and home keeper.

I gave older women a place of honor to teach me. I think having an attitude of “I don’t have it all together and I want to be humble and learn” has been a mantra – especially in the area of my marriage and my mothering and my home keeping skills.

Because I’m more of a random kind of spontaneous type of nature, I have benefited from their input to help me create structure and order – so that sanctuary could be understood and created.

Gorgeous gals like Esther (she was married to a mega-maniac), Ruth (she listened and followed the instruction of the older, wiser woman in her life), Abigail, Sarah, Mary, Martha (she received correction with humility) and a few others bless me by the examples of their lives.

There’s one gal in particular that I put toward the top of my mentor/role model list. She’s the one whose husband had a lot of confidence in her (it says she enriched his life) and she’s the one who knew the secret to battle fear – work hard and laugh at the future.

This gal’s story is written in just about the middle of my Holy Book. Her name is Mrs. P31 Woman. She was an on-purpose home keeper.

She was clear on WHAT she wanted her home to be like and how she wanted to manage her home. She knew what it would take to have her household run smoothly.

She was a CENTERED WOMAN and she was purposeful in attending to the affairs of her home. I truly believe that her heart of honor toward her husband was center in her being such an amazing woman.

Like the P31 Woman your WHAT will define the affairs you attend to in your home. I hope you listed your WHAT. If not, please do so today.

Today’s homework is for you make a cup of tea or coffee and travel back in time and sit down with Mrs. P31 and consider her WHAT, her HOW and her WHEN.

Also, reflect on women you’ve known that you admire – those who you want to learn from. Think about some of their WHAT’s – what you saw – in their homes that were Simple Homes and sanctuary.

I’ll be back to tomorrow (from Spain) and we’ll talk about the gift of TIME.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so excited to find this post. I am going to have to start from the beginning. I am so excited!!!

The Apron Queen said...

You go girl! Great tackle! :D

I'm tackling My Bucket List and a great giveaway. Pop on over to check it out: http://anapronaday.blogspot.com/search/label/bucket%20list

Today's Bucket List item was Kiss the Most Beautiful Girl in the World!

Reesa said...

I love what you have to say about this. I've read and read and reread P31 to the point that it's almost embedded in my brain. She's my role model for life, but I hadn't thought of her purposefulness before now. Great point! Thank you. I will definately be doing my homework during tomorrow's quiet time!

Anonymous said...

I like your plan. You sound like you are on a good road to enjoying your life. Have a great Wednesday.