A godly wife is organized and works hard to operate her home with the least possible chaos. She also creates an optimistic, joyful atmosphere for her family. God has always intended for the home to be the wife’s domain. Unfortunately, this is not a popular topic in our culture, but God did and still does intend for the wife to be a “worker at home” (Titus 2:5).

The Excellent Wife, p.71

Chapter Eight of Martha Peace’s The Excellent Wife is called “Home: The Wife’s Domain.” After the subject of submission this is probably on of the main jaw-clenching topics for Christian women. There seems to be a broad spectrum of thought on a Christian woman’s role requirements toward her home.

Some women are lazy, sleep in, let the children fend for themselves, the home is disorderly, maybe the wife watches too much TV or spends all day on the phone. She just can’t seem to get work in her home done. Then there are women who have a feministic attitude about their role in the home. She doesn’t want to miss out on what is going on “out there”and insists on having a certain lifestyle that requires more money, or maybe just doesn’t want to be burdened by caring for her children day in and day out. Still other women don’t work outside the home but are so busy with church or school activities that they are away from home all day every day making life at home feel chaotic. Every minute is booked, maybe because she won’t say “no” to opportunities leaving her with little time to nurture and develop her home or her relationship with her husband and children.

This concept of women being workers at home may not be popular but it is Biblical. Having a well run household is one of the main ministries that God has given to the wife. Last week my friend Lindsey and I were talking about this ministry of keeping our homes. We both have young sons, our husbands are busy at work each week and we are both very involved in the ministry life of our church. We were talking about how we just need to stay home one day each week to get cleaning and organizing done and get things in order. Even though cleaning the shower might not be our favorite thing to do we know that these things need to be done and done for the Lord.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Colossians 3:23-24

The context of these verses is how a bond servant should work for his master, and we can glean from it the hard-working, obedient heart that we as Christian wives must have. We are called to be obedient to God and to our husbands, not because we want to please men but because we fear God (v.22). Some wives only get the house clean and organized because company is coming over. We should take the care our home seriously as a responsibility before God all the time not before men just because friends will come over and see our house. Maybe you don’t really care about having a well-run home–Let your heart be motivated by the Lord and what He calls you to do, not what people think of you.
NKJ translates “all your heart” as “do it heartily”. When you work for God and not men it translates into a heartiness in our efforts. The dictionary’s definition paints a great picture–

heart·i·ly
a: with all sincerity
b: with zest or gusto

Most of us could use a renewed heartiness in keeping our home!

Verse 24 is very encouraging in reminding us of the reality that believers will be rewarded for their obedience. Even if we have no earthly compensation or no one takes notice of our efforts, God will bless us because of our obedience to Him. Sometimes this is the hardest part because we spend a whole day cleaning and our husband doesn’t praise us or even notice. But it is not about working to have our obedience noticed by people. We need to see this as a heart attitude of obedience before the Lord. If we just slack off and tell ourselves that no one will know or care if we don’t manage our home well then God will deal with our disobedience.

I hope this is a motivating encouragement today. Let’s be faithful working in our homes to be organized and efficient and to nurture an atmosphere of joy. Doing all of this not for praise from others but working heartily as unto the Lord for He is our Master and we want to be obedient to Him!

One of my greatest passions is to see young women following Christ. Not today’s “Yeah, I’m a Christian” but dynamically giving their all for Him by embracing God’s design for them as women, developing spiritual maturity through His Word and living this out to build up the church and bring others to faith in Christ. The Lord continues to grow this passion in my heart as He gives me countless opportunities to come along side young women in ministry of Compass Bible Church where my husband is the high school youth pastor. This weekend I have had some time to step back and just thank the Lord for putting me in this place to help young girls draw nearer to Him.

This has been something on my heart for some time but really cemented last summer, when, at a popular Christian camp I sat on wooden bleachers with most of our high school girls for a one hour seminar for girls. The teacher held up a Barbie Doll to illustrate and talked about how–

Deep down every girl wants to be admired,
respected and honored, and that’s what God wants too.
He knows that when a girl holds her head high
And walks with dignity, she is much happier
and more confident as a person.

I became very concerned that my girls would buy into this popular mantra of Christian girls books today—“You have intrinsic worth” and “God wants to fulfill your dreams.” Who is telling them how to be young girls who live to please God, the importance of pursing spiritual disciplines and the necessity of boldly proclaiming the gospel? It seems that ministries to young women–books, magazines, teaching–are more aligned with Seventeen magazine than God’s Word.

That may seem harsh, but if you go to your local Christian bookstore and pick up the main titles for young women this is what you will find. The Lord has placed a burden on my heart for the girls in our ministry, to come alongside them with the Biblical gospel–teaching them the truth to value, not themselves, but a real relationship with God. Today’s young woman doesn’t need to esteem herself more, be convinced of her inner mystery, claim her beauty or demand respect. She needs to be transformed into the likeness of her Savior!

From this came the idea of Girl’s Workshops. I wanted to have something that complemented the other components of our ministry–teaching, worship, small groups and discipleship. To do that my girl leaders and I are putting on a once a month event where we will sit around tables with our girls for two hours designed to help inspire and challenge each girl to grow in following the Lord. Our second Girl’s Workshop is this Saturday and I am so excited! My husband told me today that he realized that I haven’t been blogging as frequently because I’ve been working to prepare for teaching these. So I thought I’d take some time to share my heart on this with you!

To read my other posts about girl ministry please follow these links–

What Do Girls Need?
What Girls Need: A Transformed Heart

Today Compass Bible Church held a baptismal service where around 60 people proclaimed rebirth in Christ and were identified with Christ by following Him in baptism. It was awesome.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul says–

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come!”

A lot of people want to say “I’m in Christ” but cannot say “I’m a new creation.” When I meet with high school girls I always ask them about their testimony. Sometimes if they give a “prayed-the-prayer-at-four-but-that’s-all” I’ll ask how they have seen God change them. Usually when we talk about the fruit of salvation we find out that she has more to her testimony or we find out that she isn’t really a follower of Christ. You can’t be in Christ and be the same old you.

One of these sweet girls is Nakieta. She asked if we could meet for breakfast one day and when I picked her up she was down, troubled and confused. As we sat at a bakery with our breakfast she shared that she had never seen a change in her life. She had always just been Nakieta, never had there been a major change like Paul talks about in our verse.

Then, right there in front of me, eating a bowl of Swiss oatmeal and reading Ephesians 2 the Lord opened her heart to receive His Word and she began to cry and pray and ask Him to save her. He did.

Today as she was baptized I cried because in that blue inflatable pool was one girl who God has made completely new. Her face radiated joy and peace as she told everyone that she has turned from her sin and has trusted Christ to save her. God is amazing.

How can we not tell others the gospel? We say we’re shy, we don’t think they’ll like us if we speak the truth, or say we’re just too nervous. Please be available to be used by God to speak the truth of His gospel to someone. He does the work in you and He does the work in them. Maybe they will be made a new creation right there in front of you!

By grace you’ve been saved
All praise to Jesus
Who made us alive

Together we’re raised
All praise to Jesus
Whose great love won’t die

And He will complete
His good work begun in me
For He is gracious
O Lord, make me new

And I will follow
On His path before my feet
To see His glory
Lord, lead me to You

Godsong–“By Grace to Glory”

I’ve seen an ongoing theme this week of the sad reality of cliques, the need for genuine spiritual fellowship and for Christians to reach out to others. All too often we get comfortable with our little circle and weeks or months can go by with us only talking to them, being wrapped up in our own little world. We can get so focused in on ourselves and our life that we never reach out.

But God has called each of His children to not only look out for the interests of others (Phil. 2:4) but to be always proclaiming the the hope that they have in Christ (1 Peter 3:15). Between those two we should always be reaching out to those around us, both Christians we see on a regular basis and also the unsaved around us–maybe a family member, neighbor, coworker or someone at school. We are called to reach out!

My husband wrote a poignant blog entry from Matthew 5:47 called Greeting Like Pagans–What happens when we only love those who love us. As a high school youth pastor he has come to hate the cliques that seem to plague young people. But it isn’t hard to see that this superficial approach to others is not unique to teenagers, but really is a common pit for most everybody.

Bobby says–

Imagine if God treated us how we act towards others. What if He only showed love to those who loved Him?

God loved us when we were his enemies, when we were in sin against Him. We need to love others like this, looking for ways to take the initiative in conversation.

I can think of many reasons why we don’t reach out to others like this. Maybe they will just think we are being nosey, we don’t know what questions to ask, we are intimidated or maybe if we were honest we just don’t really care about others that much.

Before Women’s Retreat I was challenged by a mentor to reach out to others at the retreat. She gave me a list of ideas that would help me do this and by the end of the weekend I had been able to do them all. They aren’t difficult, really they were simple ways to put others above myself. But reaching out to others isn’t something we should just do at a retreat or at church. Caring for others enough to reach out to them should characterize us. Here are some of the ideas on that list from my friend. I hope you will try to do one or two of them this weekend!

1. Look for people who are sitting alone, especially someone you don’t know. Sit with them and strike up a conversation.
2. Say growth oriented and purposeful things. Use your words to spur others on to more maturity in their walk with God.
3. Use your interaction as a catalyst for praying together. When someone asks you to pray for them seize the moment, take them aside and pray right then.
4. Stay 15 minutes longer than you intended or normally feel comfortable with…making yourself available to others.
5. Regularly plan to get together with people for a meal, invite them over or meet for coffee so you can get to know them better.

We are so excited to welcome my sister, Alicia’s new son, Brayden Jacob into the family! He was born Monday night 6lbs 10oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. Congratulations!

“Behold, children are a gift of the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.”

Psalm 127:3-4