Thursday, January 8, 2009

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!




7 comments:

  1. Hey! I used the same laundry picture on my blog post today!

    I appreciate the paragraph that you shared at the end. I pray that there will be a reformation so that our duaghters will not be alone in there job as wives and mothers.

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  2. Amen!! Thank you so much for this post! I am amazed sometimes to read something that sounds exactly as if I said it myself. This was such a blessing to read. My teenaged daughters and I are reading the maidens of virtue book and are loving it. I too was never taught the importance of the calling God has given us as women. I wish I would have been half as prepared as my daughters will be. What a blessing to step from the headship of a father to the headship of a husband and be equipped to keep her husband's home. I love what you said about when the children come along. What a peaceful home to bring them into! Thank you for this blog. I look forward to every entry!

    Grace and peace to you and yours!

    Gingerbreadmom

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  3. Great!! Great!! post. I know what you mean about teaching them the things that we were not taught. I need to get this book and also go through it with my own girls.

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  4. How encouraging to read your post. I am actually a newly married bride as of Dec. 13th! :) I cannot tell you how wonderful my marriage has started out (true it has only been a month), but a good deal of that I would attribute to my wonderful mother who raised me to be a great wife. It is such an incredible blessing and JOY to be making a home for my husband, cleaning, cooking, even baking bread, planning menus, etc. Since none of this is a learning curve I am able to spend more time doing many of the things that I enjoy. I absolutely love studying the Bible and writing BIble Studies. Having already had a great background in preparation has allowed me to start my own blog, build relationships with the people at my church, visit other members, and take seminary classes. Believe it or not I learned to cook pretty much kicking or screaming, but oh what a joy to be able to prepare dinner with ease!

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  5. This is not what most young girls want to hear. We are raising our girls just the same way. I too am passionate about it. Those precious verses in Titus 2 are some of my favorite, but I never hear them preached on. I never heard anything about being a keeper at home while growing up. Nowadays girls are constantly getting career put into their heads. I LOVE being at home, taking care of my 5 precious children and my husband. What a pure joy!!

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  6. I like how you just spelled it out for her----no where does it say to prepare for a career!

    I am planning to spend the summer on homemaking skills. I know they are learning some each day, but I want to do more purposeful cooking lessons, sewing lessons, etc. during the summer months.

    Thank you for the encouragement!

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  7. Thank you for this encouraging word. I am determined to help my daughters create a beautiful life that can display the glory of our King at action in our homes and theirs. How refreshing to read something so edifying to the homemaker and our beautiful girls.
    I have the book on order. There is none available here (Australia) at present and look forward to exploring more of the gems inside.

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