Homemaking is a Ministry?

Last week, I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at Starbucks participating in this year's Homemaking Ministries Online Conference!  Josh was AMAZING and offered to keep the boys all three days during the day, so I could go and totally engage in the online sessions and Facebook group!

Finding this conference online was absolutely a God send!  For months God has been working in my heart about His role for me, so this conference was very timely! 

I'm excited to write about the practical tips I learned, but first I want to share some of the fantastic Spiritual insights from these sessions!  Truly this conference was absolutely Christ Centered and I was blessed far beyond my expectations.

The first session was about "The Ministry of Homemaking".  Before going into why homemaking is the ministry God designed for every woman (whether you stay at home or work outside your home, are married or single, homeschool or not, etc...), speaker Jami Balmet emphasized the importance of having a "Gospel centered" home! 

"The Gospel should daily be impacting our lives and daily be our focus." (Jami Balmet of Young Wife's Guide)  I loved that she took the time to share the Gospel before proceeding with her session.

"Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled." Titus 2:3-5 ESV

The passage above can sometimes make us cringe!  Self-controlled? Pure? Working at Home? Submissive?! .... Ugh! BORING!!! But I loved what Marci Ferrell of Thankful Homemaker stated in one of her sessions.  She said, "There is no better place to bestow my gifts and talents, than on the husband, children, and grandchildren God has given me!"  I loved this reminder!  It's easy to become bored with my job as homemaker and feel like "I could do so much more with my skills and talents!"  Certainly those that I love the most deserve the best! (Specifically MY best!)

"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Philippians 2:3-8 ESV

In response to the above verse, Marci Ferrell commented, "Jesus calls us to sacrifice our lives for Him.  It takes a costly investment of time, energy, creativity, endurance, and selflessness to build a home of eternal significance!"

That is what I want!  I want to build a home of eternal significance!  So I have to ask myself, what am I willing to give up?  How much of myself am I willing to give?

"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men," Colossians 3:23 ESV

Jennifer Ross from The Focused Homemaker reminded those of us watching her session that God's Word tell us what to do!  She encouraged us to see the Bible has a lot to say about doing "good works".  And although our salvation does not come through works, we were created to do good works!  Similarly, Katie Bennet from Embracing A Simpler Life stated, "Working hard glorifies God!"

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-9

As you can see, this conference was rich in Biblical truths and encouragement!  I've only shared a few of my favorite points, but if you are interested the sessions are available for purchase at http://homemakingministries.com/homemaking-ministries-online-conference-2015/

I look forward to sharing some of the practical tips I took away from the conference soon.  In the meantime, I pray you are blessed and challenged as I was by the following quote...

“This job has been given to me to do. Therefore, it is a gift. Therefore, it is a privilege. Therefore, it is an offering I may make to God. Therefore, it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him. Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness.” (Elisabeth Elliot)