"Because there's a clock on the stove!"
"Why do women get married in white?"
"So they can match the kitchen appliances!"
"Why hasn't NASA sent any women to the moon?"
"Because it doesn't need to be cleaned yet!"
I used to think woman-in-the-kitchen jokes were funny. I even delighted in telling a few. If I vacuumed, I jokingly called it "wife training"; if I cooked for friends, I racked up "woman points." I viewed the wife's role lightheartedly and irreverently.
Then I got married.
Now I am the woman in the kitchen.
Now when my man wants a sandwich, it's my job to make him one.
My occupation is cooking, cleaning, nursing, and changing diapers.
Needless to say, I view the job of "housewife" in a very different way than I did less than two years ago.
A lot of unmarried Christian women (my unmarried self having been one of them) unfortunately may tend to join the world in poking fun at the role of housewife, thus having a skewed and perverted perception of submission and service.
I would like to write this blog to Biblically correct that misguided view of womanhood and encourage all women, especially new wives and women who want to be wives, through scripture and experience that homemaking and serving our husbands is what we do but not who we are.
A little background: I have never been very feminine.
When I was younger, my little brother picked out my clothes for me because I mismatched on purpose.
I've never been one for "home accents" and I cried when my husband wanted to paint our walls.
I currently do not own any necklaces or nail polish.
My [patient and gracious] husband Peter has to ask me to make my hair look a little nicer or for my clothes to match a little better (I still struggle with that hehe.)
I've never prioritised a clean room and I didn't do my own laundry until I went to college.
I've never enjoyed cooking.
I never thought much about my wedding day, and I left the decorating part up to Peter and my mom because I didn't care one bit.
I'm not sure if any of that is bad (though at least some of it most likely is) but very early on I learned that my husband really desires for me to be elegant, feminine, and efficient...and he deserves for me to be as such. It doesn't mean my new favourite colour has to be pink or that I have to wear dresses all the time, but in submitting to my husband I must embrace femininity and the womanliness with which God created me, and that's never come naturally. Thus is my quest.
Maybe you're in the same place I found myself (and still struggle with today.) Maybe you're a stay-at-home-mom and homemaking just isn't as fulfilling as it used to be---or maybe it's never been fulfilling at all.
Let me tell you, you can spend all the time you want trying to be a Pinterest wife, with all the best recipes, the most classy decor, the most organised closets...and you might even succeed in fooling everyone into thinking you have single-handedly created a thriving home environment.
However, if you idolise serving your household and your ultimate aim is anything other than to glorify Jesus, you will be very quickly burnt out and joyless (and no fun to live with!) If the good news of Jesus does not drive you, you are missing out like you wouldn't believe.
I've only been on this journey for 13 months so I am definitely still a student! But please join with me as God teaches me about the Gospel and how that translates into this new role of mine.
I hope to mostly post scriptures that encourage/convict me and words from other Christians that uplift/challenge me, but I plan on also posting things I've learned from homemaking so far: practical tips, recipes that actually worked, fun stories, pictures, etc. I desperately want to lead others in the adoration of Jesus, and if He chooses to use me through this medium of blogging, that would gladden my heart!!!
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