Last week was a crazy busy week, but oh so fun! I wasn’t able to get all five of the posts done for last week, but we will just continue on in my new series, 30 Days of Intentional Homemaking like there was no delay! Today I’m talking about how homemaking demonstrates love through action.
30 Days of Intentional Homemaking: Day 4
I came home today after being out of town for the last five days. Something about traveling wears me out! Well, honestly, I was tired because we stayed up until 1:00 or 2:00 am every single night visiting with friends. So that’s probably part of why I was so tired today. I came home and took a nap and then Hannah, Laura, and I got to work cleaning the house and cooking supper.
Homemaking is a part of every day at home and housekeeping in particular seems to present a never ending list of tasks to complete. We travel a lot, but there’s no getting out of the necessary care required of the home when we return.
So far in this series, we’ve talked about what it means to make a home, how a wise woman builds her home, and how homemaking is a ministry. Today I’m talking about how homemaking demonstrates love through action.
Homemaking Demonstrates Love through Action
When you prepare your husband’s favorite meal and set a pretty table, you are showing him through your action that he is loved and cared for in a very practical, tangible way.
When you change the sheets and make the bed with fresh, crisp, tightly tucked sheets and fresh pillowcases that you love the person who sleeps in that bed in a very real, practical, and tangible way.
When you scrub the bathroom of dirt and grime, replace the hand towels with fresh, and burn sweet smelling candles there, you are showing love to the people who use that room.
When you match a mountain of socks for your family you are demonstrating love through action and it’s the most meaningful kind of love. Showy displays and declarations of love have little meaning without the practical, daily demonstrations of what real love is.
In the same way that homemaking demonstrates love through action, we as Christians are called to demonstrate our faith through action as well.
James 2:14-26 says:
What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
You see, for the Christian woman, saying you love God isn’t very convincing if you aren’t behaving in a way that demonstrates that love.
Jesus said, “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?” Matthew 7:16.
Everyone begins their Christian walk at a different place in the journey. We can’t compare our walk with someone else’s. The question is, are you growing in faith. Are you a different person today than you were six weeks ago or six months ago?
Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that, “…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
All of the fruits of the Spirit are attitudes that will bless your home. A home filled with the fruits of the Spirit would be a happy home indeed.
How is your faith demonstrated through action? How do you demonstrate practical love through homemaking? Let me know what comes to mind in the comments below!
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The Ministry of Homemaking
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