Ladies,
Sometimes homemaking encouragement can seem like championing being just one dynamic of ourselves, a housekeeping, cooking, cleaning machine. But look past the daily duties of the homemaker to the dynamic woman she is:
She is a gardener, a food preservation expert, a soap maker, a jewelry designer, a farmer, a musician, a writer, a reader, an athlete, a photographer, a seamstress, the list goes on.
Christians model their role as homemaker by the standard set in the Holy Bible. The Proverbs 31 woman is praised for her God-fearing character driving her ambition and work to bless her husband and her household.
First, Master the Basics
When working at home exclusively, we need to learn to get up every day the same we would for an outside job and live a structure to the day that meets the tangible needs of the family. As a new homemaker, it is especially important to learn what needs to be done each day since you may have no idea what to do. The early years of homemaking are about learning what to do and mastering these basics.
- Make the bed
- Fix up
- One load of laundry folded & put away
- Plan dinner
- Errands
- Daily Project (painting, decorating, hanging curtains, researching a household product, etc.)
- Tidy
- Clean something
- Organize (a drawer, a closet, garage, etc.)
- Make Dinner (start this one hour before serving time, more hours if a beginner)
- Dishes
- Take out trash
- Clean floors
Mastering Other Skills Beyond
Cooking may be a skill you need to devote a significant amount of time and attention to just to get good at meal planning, grocery list making, grocery shopping, food prep, and cooking. But maybe this “basic” becomes your next level skill. Cooking and baking, even grocery shopping expertise is an entire rabbit hole. The more you learn, the more you discover what you can learn. You don’t have to just buy bread; you can make bread. You don’t have to just make bread; you can mill your own wheat. There is a world to learn inside of each topic of homemaking. The fact is, you will discover new interests buried beneath the surface of “basic homemaking”.
The point is, a homemaker eventually becomes an expert in the “basics” and beyond, either deeper into a basic category, or into a different field entirely.
Develop Your Interests
The Proverbs 31 woman did not just endlessly clean her house. In fact, she had servants. She delegated housework to a degree that freed her up to do other things. We see her taking a deeper dive into textile making and broadening her horizon to sell her merchandise.
Bless Your Household Uniquely
When you play an instrument, you bring music into the rooms. When you paint, you encourage beauty and creativity in your home. When you deep dive into baking bread, you bring a richer experience into an everyday necessity. By enterprising with your expertise, you can even bring money into the home. Whether connected to the basics of homemaking, or diverting into a new topic, these are ways to bless your family.
Dynamic, Smart & Capable
Every home benefits from dynamic, smart, and capable homemakers and not just by her expertise in the basics of life, although this benefit is great indeed. You are also a wife who has conversation with a husband. Perhaps you are a mother shaping hearts and minds by your own understanding. Look to the Proverbs 31 woman and contemplate her character, her intelligence, and her strength and that all of these roles were given to her because we are capable of doing them and growing in them.
Grow in Your Expertise
When you deep dive into any topic of interest, you will find a complete subculture of experts in any field. There are accomplished people all around us from mechanics, to bakers, to seamstresses, to gardeners, etc. Not all experts need degrees and titles. The evidence of someone’s expertise is obvious in their results and obvious in their ability to teach others to do it better.
There are many different experts who become so on their own time and in their own homes. Use time at home to not just master the basics of homemaking but grow beyond them.
What skills have you always been drawn to do? What kinds of skills would you love to gift to your husband or children? Recognize any intimidation that keeps you from these skills and realize that anything is learnable. Pray about what you want to learn.
