Women Managing Their Households

   I am old enough to remember when it was normal to see moms staying at home, dads going to work, and children going to school. Almost every household had this pattern, but today it is different. Many moms and wives have excellent careers, and I've seen dads that were unable to work, raise the children. I think, personally, this is commendable. Everyone does their part and it all works together.
  With the breakdown of the family unit, life is more difficult somehow. Trying to land a job, is almost impossible for many people. But we all have to do whatever we have to do, to make it work.
   But in all this, God has designed women to manage the home. I don't know about you, but when I hear the words that have to do with managing a home, I think about just the mundane tasks like washing dishes and mopping the floors. There's got to be more to life than that! And there is.
   Married women are to be help-mates to their husbands. Some people don't like that, because it makes it sound as if women are second class citizens, but, if you think about this, you can turn it around and it has a different spin to it. Husbands cannot do it on their own. They were never intended to. They need help. So, God made the woman for the man to be his help-mate, because they need help.
  Every woman was designed to be a homemaker. Managing a household doesn't mean that a woman can't have a career though. It is kind of like having two careers.
  So, we are going to investigate what it means to 'manage a household'. What does it look like? What is involved in managing a home?
  There are some household chores that are so basic, we don't even categorize them. We just do them. And single guys do them too. We all do things like cooking and cleaning, as well as basic household chores. What we don't realize is that the tasks that are involved in homemaking take a long time, and we don't necessarily appreciate the results (unless the housework doesn't get done!).
  There are two basic problems that keep us from keeping our homes properly. One is, like I just stated, housework is just assumed and it is boring sometimes. The other problem is, there are things that can be done in relation to housework, that can be done differently. What I mean by that, is that today, we live in an artificial world, where we use things that are 1. convenient, 2. pretty, and 3. tasty.
  The first supermarket came into existence in 1946, and many homemakers began using the processed foods now available to them. That was about 68 years ago, a couple of generations ago. My grandmother made her own soap, but after soap became factory made, less and less people made their own soap. Over time, less cooking was involved in homemaking. When I got married, our dinner came in a box. Chef Boyardee  put out a pizza mix which came in a box, along with the sauce and dried cheese.
   Making clothes, soap, and dinner now comes from a factory. This makes it easier for us to do other things. But what do you think the trade-off is?
   Our families need nurturing. Children need one-on-one with mom. Husbands need a wife who will serve and love him. Elderly parents need constant care. Our homes should be open to serve other people with, as well.
   So, you can see that homemaking is not sitting on your living room couch, watching soap box operas every day (although I have seen this!). God has so much more in store for homemaking than this!

Our food can still be in our homes, gardens, local fields,
forests, pantries, cellars and backyards.