Titus 3:3-5 NAS, “Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored.”

I believe in working women. God is into working women. But God has ordained the place where they are to work. It is in the home. Before God created the woman He prepared a garden home ready for her. He designed this place for you to work. It is perfect for creativity. It is most suited for optimum results. It is the most protected environment. It is where God intended children to be raised. It is where you will accomplish the most for God. In the heart of your home you are in the perfect will of God.

When you are asked, “Do you go to work?” your immediate reply should be, “Yes, of course!”

“Where do you go to work?” the question continues.

“In the best place, my home,” you reply.

Accept your home as the place where God has chosen for you to work. And remember it is a place to work! When your husband gets up in the morning, does he go off to work in his pajamas? No, he gets dressed in his suit if he works in the business world, or into his working clothes if he works with his hands! Dear mother, when you get up, get dressed and ready to tackle the day’s work. Don’t loaf around in your dressing gown drinking cups of coffee when an important work awaits you.

You have no insignificant task. You have the most important and influential work in the nation as you build a strong stable home and raise children who will determine the future of the nation and even the world! This work is taxing. This work takes all your physical and emotional strength. This work takes prayer. It takes brain power! Oh yes, contrary to humanistic propaganda, building a home and raising a powerful family for God takes brain power. To do this great assignment well you have to use all your creativity and all your brain power! You can’t do it effectively part time. You can’t do it lolling around. You have to go to work!

There are two early manuscripts from which the Bible is translated. Regarding today’s Scripture, some translate the phrase “keepers at home” as ‘oikouros’. This is a combination of two words:

‘oikos’ – home, and ‘ouros’ – guard = guardian of the home

Other translations use the word, ‘oikourogo’ which is also a combination of two words:

‘oikos’– home, and ‘ergon’ – work = worker at home

Dear lovely mother, don’t complain about all you have to do. Complaining drains your energy. Realize it is all part of your great job assignment. Roll up your sleeves, go to work and do it. God is your employer and He has given you your home in which to accomplish this great work.  Make your home a lovely environment in which to work. Make it a safe, secure, stable, sound, serene and sanctified place in which to raise your children.

Don’t approach your work with resignation and negativity. Do it with joy. Confess, “I love to work.” God designed for us to work. He introduced it before the fall of man. It is for our blessing. And hard work won’t kill you. You’ll feel tired, but you’ll sleep well! In fact you’ll sleep better the harder you work. Work with a good attitude – willingly, joyfully, fervently, faithfully, without grumbling and do everything as unto the Lord. Do it diligently and properly.

Are you ready for work today?

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Oh God, I thank you for giving me my home in which to work and serve you. Thank you that this is the place you have chosen for me to raise our children. Help me to work diligently as I train them for you and make my home a clean, wholesome environment to fulfill my great commission. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

1 Timothy 5:14, “I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.”
 

The New Testament also gives us the same understanding that we are to be the rulers of our homes. The phrase, ‘guide the house’ is the Greek word ‘oikodespoteo’. It is a combination of two words –

‘oikos’ – home, household, family

‘despotes’ – master, ruler
 

Here we have the same meaning again, that God has given to women the charge, not to manage their husband’s lives but to manage their own households. We have the responsibility from God to keep our homes running smoothly.

We have the testimony of the woman in Proverbs 31:27, “She looks well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.” The Hebrew word for “looks well” is ‘tsaphah’ and it has two meanings.

1) To observe, to keep watch.

Dear mother, don’t look at all the other things that you could be doing outside your home. Instead look to the things that need to be taken care of in your home today. There’s a lot to do. Is the laundry up-to-date? Are the dishes washed? Is your home running smoothly? Are you watching over what needs to be accomplished in your home? Are you watching over the minds and hearts of your children? Are you watching in prayer?

2) To lean forward, to peer into the distance.

The diligent mother not only watches over the daily affairs of her home but she also looks ahead. She has stores of water and food in case of an emergency.

More than that, she looks into the future and makes decisions, based not only on the present, but how they will affect the future of her children. She also knows that mothering is not just for today but for the years ahead and the generations to follow. This mother knows that she is training children for God’s divine purpose. Because she sees the bigger picture, the constant little things that go wrong from day to day do not frustrate her. She knows that pouring her heart into her home and teaching and training her children will have national and eternal consequences.

I love the words of Rev. T. De  Witt Talmage, “Thank God, O woman, for the quietude of your home, and that you are queen in it. Men come at eventide to the home; but all day long you are there, beautifying it, sanctifying it, adorning it, blessing it. Better be there than wear a queen’s coronet. Better be there than carry the purse of a princess. It may be a very humble home. There may be no carpet on the floor. There may be no pictures on the wall. There may be no silks in the wardrobe; but, by your faith in God, and your cheerful demeanor, you may garniture that place with more splendor than the upholsterer’s hand ever kindled.”

Your home is not a prison to restrict your life. It is a place where God can use you to influence many lives for Him, firstly your children, and multitudes of others who will come into your home over the years. My greatest delight is to bring people into our home, to feed them at our table and by God’s grace, to show them God’s love and lead them closer to God.

I also love the words my daughter, Pearl, wrote about her grandmother, my mother. “It was in her kitchen that she welcomed friends and those who were lonely. An herb tea made in a pottery teapot and ‘something nourishing to eat’ were the items on her menu during visiting hours, though there never seemed to be a closing time. But it wasn’t just for the homemade food they came. It was the listening ear she offered and the well-chosen words of counsel. Her kitchen was not only a place to feed the hungry. It was a psychiatry office with a stool for a couch.”

Begin to dream about the wonderful things that can happen in your home.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Oh Lord, please help me to make my home a beautiful place for you to dwell and a peaceful home for my family to live in. Show me how I can serve you and serve people in my home, rather than rushing out to meetings and leaving my children. Oh God, please use me to love and nurture many people to you in my home . Amen.

AFFIRMATION: 

1 Kings 17:17, “…the woman, the mistress of the house.”

Dear homemaker, how do you picture yourself in your home? Trapped? Imprisoned? Downgraded? Bored? Frustrated? Or are you reigning as the Queen of your home?

God intends for us to reign as queens. The Old Testament calls you “the mistress of the house.” The Hebrew word for ‘mistress’ is ‘baalah’ which is simply the feminine word for ‘baal’. It means ‘to be master, to have dominion over.’

There is another word that is also used for ‘mistress’ in the Old Testament. It is the Hebrew word ‘gbereth’. Once again, it is the feminine word of master, ‘gbiyr’ and means ‘to be strong, valiant, to prevail.’

It is not only men who want to have dominion. There is something in a woman that wants to have dominion also. God appointed it that way. Immediately after God told Adam and Even to “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,” He then said to them, “Subdue it, and have dominion…” These words were not only spoken to the man, but to the woman. 

Now just a minute, I am not leading you down a path of deception. I am not saying that you are to take over the rulership of your home. Let’s get things straight. We are privileged to submit to our husband’s leadership, authority and protection. However, under his covering and protection, God has given us a sphere of rulership – a realm where we are to rule and reign! What is this domain? It is our home.

God wants you to be the ‘mistress’ – governing over the domestic affairs of your home. Your home is the center of your life. It is a place of challenge, creativity and celebration. You rule over your kitchen, making sure that your husband and family are daily nurtured with nutritious life-giving meals. You preside over the educating of your children. You administrate the cleaning of your home. You direct the ideas, the projects and the plans that you and your children are currently working on.

You practice hospitality – planning when you will invite each particular family or lonely person to come and eat at your table. You think about what you will feed them and how you can make them feel special. You work on assignments with your children in order to reach out to the poor and needy. You are constantly making your home a creative, interesting and sacred place to live in. 

You plan, plant and work your garden to feed your family and beautify your home. And of course you are full-time nurturing, loving and encouraging your husband and children. Oh your life is FULL! There is so much to reign over. You never have enough time to fulfill all your great visions. Of course, as queen of your home, you are not doing everything yourself, but training your children to take over in all these areas.


And yet there are many who are bored with their home. They have not yet seen the vision that their home is their greatest sphere of influence for God.  They do not have the vision for raising children for God. With no vision for hospitality and so little to rule over, they are unfulfilled and have to find their place of dominion somewhere else. Unfortunately, they move out of the sphere where God wants them to govern. They come out from their husband’s protection and become vulnerable to other men instead of their own husband. The result is an epidemic of divorce and breakdown of marriage, even in the Christian world.  

Let’s find fulfillment in the great opportunity God has given to us in our home.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Oh God, I thank you for your divine plans for my life. Thank you for giving me the privilege of my home where I can live and work for you, nurturing and training your children and making it a safe and sacred place for my husband.  I thank you, Lord, that in my home I can find my greatest fulfillment. Save me from walking out on this great task you have given to me. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION: 

 

P.S. Here are some other Scriptures that mention the “mistress” of the home: Genesis 16:8-9; 2 Kings 5:3; Psalm 123:2; Isaiah 24:2.

Proverbs 15:1, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.”

Today we look at the last of the 5 Ms regarding graciousness in a woman. The most revealing of all is…

5) Our Mouth

This is where we make it or break it, keep it or lose it! Every time we open our mouth we reveal our graciousness or we downgrade the dignity of womanhood. There is nothing more unattractive than observing a mother shouting at her children in a supermarket. There is nothing more hideous than seeing a wife stand up to her husband.

It was recorded of Jesus, “All bare him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.” (Luke 4:22) They marveled, because they were not used to such words. The Greek word for ‘gracious’, which is used here, is ‘charis’.  It pictures God’s salvation for us. It speaks of a favor done without expectation of return. It portrays God’s loving-kindness to sinners. What is His motive? It is His freehearted love to us who do not deserve it.

When Jesus returned to His Father, He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell us, so that His life could be revealed in us on earth. When we are born again, Jesus Christ comes to live in us by His Spirit and He wants to continue to speak His gracious words through us. We speak these words even when the listener doesn’t deserve them. Has your husband been nasty to you? Shouted at you? Instead of shouting back, answer with soft and tender words. Did you know that a soft tongue can break the bone? The Bible tells us this in Proverbs 25:15. Do you feel your husband’s heart is like granite? Keep speaking soft words. They have the power to break the hardest stone. Harsh angry words will not bring your honor, but gracious words will.

Are the children driving you crazy? Respond with firm but loving words. Has someone been hurtful to you? Retaliate with kind words. Give them words of blessing, not because they deserve it, but because the grace of God fills your heart and pours from your lips.

Ephesians 4:29 commands us that all our words should “impart grace to those who hear.” And we are reminded again in Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech always be gracious.” That word ‘always’ means not only in public when we try to make a good impression but also inside the walls of our home.

The testimony of the Above Rubies woman is that “She opens her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.” (Proverbs 31:26) This is truly our greatest mark of graciousness. When we open our mouth, we retain or lose our honor.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Oh God, please touch my lips with fire from off your altar. Cleanse my lips. Help me to open my mouth with graciousness, especially towards my husband and my children. Oh please save me from the habit of speaking harsh and critical words. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and touch my lips that it will be come a habit to speak kind and gracious words, in my home and to all I meet. Thank you, Lord. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION: 

The music that can deepest reach,

And cure all ill, is cordial speech.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson