Teaching Our Daughters to Be Keepers At Home

As I mentioned previously, Karly and I had a great discussion the other day while working through her Raising Maidens of Virtue book. It was all about being a wife and mother at home.
We looked at Titus 2:4-5: That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. And 1 Timothy 5:14: I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.

We examined these verses and did not find anywhere that it said, young women should prepare for a career. No where that said a young woman needed to head out into the world and find herself before giving in to matrimony and child bearing.
I explained to my daughter that this is a subject I am passionate about. Mainly because it was never taught to me. I grew up in the church. I had wonderful Christian parents. I was surrounded by preachers, deacons, godly men and women my whole life. But I never once knew that God had priorities for me as a woman.

I plan to give that option to my girls. I plan to make it their vision. The best way to do that is equip them. Give them the tools and the know how and the excitement of being a wife, a mother, a home maker.

Karly and I talked about how she is learning what she needs now. Every dish she washes, every diaper she changes, every time she is obedient, respectful, helpful she is learning to be a wife and mother and homemaker.

When she gets married she will be at such an advantage. By knowing how to run a household of our size now she will be fully equipped to keep the home of her husband. We talked about all the opportunities she would have as a young bride. Her housework would be done early, dinner prep started. She could spend extra time sewing, scrapbooking, decorating her home, ministering to mothers of small children or the elderly, learning even more homemaking skills... She would not have to wait to have children. Her home and family would be prepared from the moment she became a MRS.

When the children came she could be joyful. Not overwhelmed and clueless. Of course there is a bit of that for every first time mom, but she would be equipped to deal with that better than most young ladies.

So much different from my experiences as a young wife and then a mother.

Here is a paragraph from the book that I copied out for her. We decorated it and put it in her notebook, but I plan to make another copy and put it somewhere that the girls and I can see it everyday. We think it's the perfect goal for our young daughters.

A young maiden should be well-trained, well-spoken, well-educated, and thoroughly prepared, for her future life as a Christian woman who is ready, willing and able to make an impact on a humanistic culture at war with God. Her education should be focused on assisting her future husband as his valuable helpmate, not on becoming her "own person". This is where true reform in the family and ultimately in the church will be born.

Be Blessed!