Get Ready, Get Set...

I have mentioned before that I once gave a talk at a career day on the "career" of homemaking.  In this talk I had a section where I talked about what someone could do to prepare to be a homemaker.  While for some, some of these things are a "bit too late now," others are things that we can work on daily in order to be better wives, mothers, children of God, and just all around better women.

How to prepare?

·         Learn to cook

·         How to grocery shop, use coupons, and save money.

·         Learn how to live on a budget and balance a check book.

·         How to clean and do laundry.

·         Learn good habits, such as cleaning up after yourself, tidiness, organization, and orderliness. (This is very important as it will help you save TONS of time.)

·         Learn how to be diligent and not to waste time.

·         Learn to do a task, no matter how much you don’t want to; learn how Not to procrastinate.

·         Learn how to serve others. Volunteer, get out of your comfort zone and look for ways to serve others. (As homemaker we are often doing things that might be difficult for us, so by doing this we are preparing our minds and hearts.)

·         Strive to have really good social skills. Be able to have a conversation with any age group, not just your peers. You will pass this skill along to your children, but you will also need to be friends with women of all ages.

·         This one may sound a bit confusing, but learn how to be able to learn for yourself, how to be self-taught. One of the results of the school systems, is that people don't know how to study and learn something on their own. You will need this because an easy way to become discontent with your life and to look outside of your home for meaning, is to stop reading and exercising your mind.  Become a life-long learner because you have lots to learn and lots to teach the immortal souls that God gives into your care. You need to exercise your mind in a way that folding the laundry doesn’t.

·         Learn to be honest with yourself. Every night before you go to sleep, examine your thoughts and behavior from that day, and ask yourself where you sinned.  Repent of your sins and ask God for forgiveness and strive to not sin in that way again. Know your faults, but don’t just accept them, but battle against them, and strive to be a better person. When we examine our sins and are honest with God and ourselves, it helps us to be better Christians, better people. The better a person you are, the better homemaker you will be.

·         Learn contentment: Whatever stage of life that you are in, that is where God has placed you, and that is where you are supposed to be.  Do not constantly look to the future and hope for something different than what you have been given. This will only breed discontent, bitterness, and regret.  

To be a good homemaker you need to be completely selfless and need to be outwardly oriented. This is how we are supposed to be good Christians. However, the single life does not prepare you to be selfless because you are so focused on what You want and you only need to think about Your Own desires. This is a danger that we need to be aware of within the single life. Look for ways to develop a servant’s heart, for ways to step out of your comfort zone and do things to serve those around you. 

   

 Finally, being a homemaker is not a job that you can strive for.  To someday be a homemaker is a Desire, not a Goal.  I know women who wanted nothing more than to have a family and lots of children, but God has called them to be single.  What if you are called to be single and you don’t find out until you are 40? Will you have wasted your life looking for something that wasn’t there. By improving yourself---mind, body, and soul---you are preparing yourself to be a good homemaker eventually, but if that is not your calling, you will have lost nothing because you will have become a  a better human being.