Finding Contentment at Home
The Ministry of Homemaking
For as long as I can remember I dreamed of one day living this perfect life in a perfect house with a perfect family. When I was as young as ten years old I would pour through my mother’s Country Living Magazines and books filled with house plans – making plans of my own for the future.
Somewhere along the way, life happened and things didn’t always go as I had planned and my perfect life, perfect house, and perfect family wasn’t quite as perfect as I had hoped.
I found myself married at a very young age and by the time I was 21 years old I was divorced and the mother of three small children. Over the few years of my first marriage we moved – a lot. In fact, every time our lease came due I found myself itching for somewhere new. A new home {or apartment as it were} represented what I thought would be a fresh new start on a stale and bitter life. I wanted more than what my life was presently offering and the walls of my home seemed to hold all of that unhappiness like a trap.
Years later, I found myself remarried and much happier, but still somehow not quite content with my life. I wanted more than what my life was presently offering and I dreamed of something different.
Life was hard. I had too many obligations and too many people who needed me – my time and attention so much that I felt they were sucking the life right out of me. And I thought, if I could just have my dream house – a white clapboard farmhouse way out in the country with horses and chickens and goats… then everything would be perfect.
I could see myself, apron clad, tending the horses, gathering eggs, watching the sun rise over the mountain from my big wide front porch. And the dream felt so peaceful.
Contentment isn’t a place. It isn’t a house. It isn’t some elusive dream that doesn’t exist.
Contentment is a state of being – where ever you find yourself.
I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Philippians 4:12,13 NLT
As homemakers, sometimes with the daily demands of life pressing in on us from every side, it’s so easy to fall into a pit of discontentment. Restlessness. Dreaming of a better life instead of bettering the life we have.
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The Ministry of Homemaking
Contentment plays an important part in our ministry as homemakers. Home is the one place in all of the world that our families should be able to come to that gives them the freedom to be themselves, find forgiveness, and escape from the harshness of the world.
How is Homemaking a Ministry?
Let’s look at the definition of minister: verb: attend to the needs of someone | synonyms: tend to, care for, take care of, look after, nurse, treat, attend to, see to, administer to, help, assist.
Sounds like a wife and mother – a homemaker – doesn’t it?
Whether you work outside the home or stay home full time, you are called by God to be a minister to your family through the ministry of homemaking.
She looketh well to the ways of her household. Proverbs 31:27
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But homemaking is so much more than merely keeping house. Yes, cleaning up, doing laundry, organizing, cooking meals, raking leaves, and more are all a part of homemaking. But you can have a spotless house and still have a home that lacks love, joy, laughter, forgiveness, grace, and kindness.
You could have a perfect well organized living space that doesn’t feel like a home.
We’ll be looking at how to create a space that feels like home during this series – a space that is neat and organized and a space where your family finds a deep connection and where love and laughter permeates the walls.
For me, I’ve finally found contentment in my less than perfect house. I’m working to better this life I have instead of dreaming of a different one.
Valuing our roles as homemaker begins in a content heart. A heart that believes making a house a home is important.
Home Work
Answers these questions below in a journal or notebook. Or, download my journaling page here.
- Contemplate your state of contentedness. Are you content? Are you chasing after dreams instead of creating the life you long for?
- How has discontentment played a role in your life and how has it affected how you see your role as homemaker?
- What does home mean to you?
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