Faithfully Embracing Home

So often in today’s world we fall prey to believing that the most important things in life happen outside the home, so we occupy ourselves with a plethora of activities that draw us away from our house and family. Yet I have found so much joy in embracing home. After college, I was a high school teacher at a Christian school for only one year until my husband and I had our first child.  While I was pregnant, I earnestly desired to stay at home with my child rather than place him in daycare, yet I also wrestled with the thought, would I be wasting my education if I didn’t use it? I loved growing up with my Mom at home to help with the homework, chat about the school day, attend our sporting events and always was ready to tend to our needs, particularly if we were sick. We regularly enjoyed home-cooked meals and pure maple syrup (which my family made from the trees on our property). Additionally, my mother was gifted in the art of hospitality. Our home was a welcoming place to gather, and I wanted that for my family, too. Yet the world around us often tells us that if we want to do something important, we must work outside of the home to achieve those dreams, and the family often takes a backseat as a result.  Yet what if our dream is to bring glory to God through our home (Titus 2:4-5)?  What if our home was the place where the teenage friends came to hang out or the neighborhood kids wanted to come play? 

When I was pregnant with my fifth child and moved back to Connecticut, I visited an obstetrician whose kids I used to babysit when I was a teenager. We had always had great comradery, which gave him the freedom to speak his mind more freely than he might have otherwise with a new patient.  He knew I had attended a top-notch college, and he knew my father was a doctor since they were colleagues. When he asked me about my occupation, I told him that I was a stay-at-home mom.  His response floored me, “What’s a smart cookie like you doing staying at home with the kids?” Completely taken aback by his frankness and unprofessionalism, I responded, “My mother stayed at home with my siblings and me, and I’d like to do the same for the next generation. I think a big piece of why we turned out like we did was because of my mom.” After that, I switched to a different OBGYN.  His response highlighted that many in our world today minimize the value of mothers who choose the path of homemaking or choose to work “lesser jobs” that work around the school schedule, enabling them to spend more time with their families.

By embracing home and trusting in God to provide on a single income, we’ve seen immense blessings over the years. We’ve seen how a mother at home can save quite a bit of money, whether by:

• Choosing to make delicious home-cooked meals rather than eating out at restaurants
• Time to cook from scratch rather than buying prepared or frozen meals
• Making snacks at home rather than relying on store bought snacks
• Caring for the children at home rather than paying for daycare or a nanny
• Doing the housework rather than hiring a housekeeper
• Freedom in the schedule which allows for bargain hunting and free activities for children during the weekday
• Mending your own clothing rather than sending it out to a tailor
• Devising ways to be frugal around the home
• Doing the laundry rather than sending it out to a laundry service
• Ironing the dress clothes rather than sending them out to be dry cleaned
• Grooming the pet rather than paying a groomer to do so
• Giving haircuts to the family; it’s really not as scary as it sounds!
• Choosing alternative heating sources (wood or pellets) that save money, but require a presence at home (to keep the fire burning)
• Mowing the lawn, string trimming, weeding and trimming the bushes (or teaching older kids to do so) rather than hiring a landscaping service
• Managing college scholarships to get your students through college debt-free

God has provided abundantly for us through the years. Stay tuned for upcoming tips on how to embrace home faithfully, save money and glorify God in the process!