One mother commented on the thread for yesterday’s post, GOD LOVES COOKING. She wrote that “cooking is an art.” I believe it’s true. God gifts people with different artistic abilities, but even these abilities need to be honed and practiced. It is the same with cooking. Many mothers come into marriage with little experience of cooking. They rarely cooked growing up in their own home, which, of course, is a detriment to their lives. All children should grow up knowing how to cook.
Some don’t like cooking because it has been looked upon as an inferior task. But Scripture reveals it is a God-like ministry. But cooking is an art. We must practice it. Learn to do it better. Learn to do it with love, not just the love of cooking, but to show our love to our husband and family.
It’s the same with everything we do as a woman. Birthing is an art. Many women never get to practice the art. They often let the hospital staff take control of their birth. I think most of us didn’t know what we were doing the first time we gave birth. But as each succeeding baby comes we learn more. We understand our body more. We learn out to go with our contractions and the way God has planned to bring the baby forth.
Breastfeeding is an art. Not many feel relaxed at nursing the moment they begin with their first baby. But as we press through with the little (or sometimes big) problems that occur, we learn the art. It becomes a beautiful art. We know how to do it. We learn that it is not just feeding our baby, but total mothering. Whenever need our baby has, we can usually pacify and console that need with nursing. It becomes part of our life.
Homemaking is an art. We continue honing and learning all the time. If we think we have learned everything, we are deceived. I am now into the great-grandmother stage and I am still finding out better ways of doing things.
Dearest wives and mothers, let’s not get bogged down into a rut. Let’s press on to greater things. Let’s hone all the beautiful arts we have the privilege of doing as wives and mothers.
Let’s become great artists. We all have creative gifts in different ways. Let’s use these gifts in our homes to make them beautiful, to make them filled with the presence of God, to make our homes a delight to ourselves, our family, and all who come in.
Blessings to you today,
Nancy Campbell
Painting by Stephen John Darbishire, British painter.