#3 House and Home–Prayers, husband, kids, cooking, cleaning–This is what it’s all about.
“The strength of any nation is rooted within the walls of its homes. We urge people everywhere to strengthen their families in conformity with… time-honored values.” Gordon B. Hinckley
Sisters, the home is where the heart of the family resides. This is where we can regroup from the rigors of the world. The home is a safe-haven, a place where we, our children, our spouse’s feel protected, loved, secure.
We should do everything in our power to bring the Spirit of the Lord into our homes for without Him, we are left bare and vulnerable. Without Him we will (not might, not if, but WILL) stray from the path that leads us to our Heavenly Home. Without Him we are left defenseless against an adversary who wonders back and forth every single minute looking for prey. Looking for us. Looking for our children.
The Lord Jesus Christ needs to be the very axis from which we rotate throughout our lives.
“ … I want to emphasize that which is already familiar to you, and that is the importance of binding our families together with love and kindness, with appreciation and respect, and with teaching the ways of the Lord so that your children will grow in righteousness and avoid the tragedies whichare overcoming so many families across the world.” Gordon B. Hinckley
Sisters, this is your job. Whether you are home full-time, part-time or hardly-any-time, this is your job. Women think they need to break the glass ceiling, make partner, work 40, 50, 60+ hours a week and not only bring home the bacon, but bring home furniture, clothing, appliances, jewelry, home-dec, iPhones and botox.
Granted, some women have to work to put bread on the table–but, even so, it is their job to make a house a home. We don’t need “stuff” to bring in the Savior. We need a broken heart and a contrite spirit. We need gentleness, loving kindness and access to all those nurturing gifts God gave us. We need to tend to the needs of our children and our husband as guided by the Holy Spirit.
Women need to stop killing their babies. This is painful just to write, much less the living reality we see each and everyday on the media.
We need to provide a healthy, clean environment that caters to healthy, clean minds and bodies. We need to run our homes not let them run us. We need to learn and practice skills and habits that promote the development of spirituality not carnality. In seeking guidance and advice we need to look to the Lord not Facebook or the Bachelor.
Sometimes our children or husband stray in spite of our best efforts. This is part of living in this world. When our hearts are broken by our loved ones, it is still our duty to cling to the Lord, to be obedient to His ground rules. Say your prayers, read your scriptures, worship with the Body of Christ. To practice faith and endure to the end even when it seems hopeless–this is part of making a home. When all seems fractured, only Jesus Christ our Savior can mend it. Can mend you.
Let us kneel in prayer to our Heavenly Father for strength, foresight and motivation striving to create a home that will nurture our loved ones through this ever increasingly wicked world. Let us pray in our dark closets, at our children’s bedside and alongside our spouse. Let us pray in our churches, in our temples with each other and for each other. Let us unite as sisters and daughters of God to do everything in our power to make our home His home. To make Him comfortable and welcome at our table.
Let us not be blindsided by the divine rule to be perfect. We need to acknowledge that we will never reach that lofty position in this lifetime. Instead of calling it a goal, I call it an ideal. An ideal that we one day, through His Grace and loving Atonement, through our obedience to His Word, will achieve perfection.
We should not cast the principle of perfection out for fear of becoming too discouraged by not achieving it and thus sink into despair and depression.
Instead we should move forward, steady and slowly, relying on the support of prayer, scripture and personal revelation. If we deny the natural self’s inclination toward victimization and press forward in obedience one baby step at a time, the Spirit will reinforce our inner strength and help us batten down the hatches against evil.
Our time here on this earth is growing ever shorter. Let us prepare the way and make straight the path. Let us start with our sacred responsibility of making a home. Be a determined homemaker, unwavering, undaunted, unswerving and unashamed. Be a homemaker, not a homebreaker.
Psalm 122:7 Pray for your homes.
Proverbs 31:11-13 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her. She will do him good not evil all the days of her life. She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
Proverbs 31:14 …she bringeth food from afar.
Proverbs 31:15 …she…giveth meat to her household.
Proverbs 31:19 She laeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.
Proverbs 31: 21 She is not afraid of the snow…all her household are clothed with scarlet.
Proverbs 31:22 She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.
Proverbs 31:25 Strength and honor are her clothing.
Titus 2:3,4,5 …aged women likewise….
DC 88:124 …cease to be unclean…
Home–The Basis of a Righteous Life
The Family – A Proclamation to the World
Here’s a fun quiz that speaks to the heart of homemaking. I don’t know it’s origin, but I retrieved it from Face Book.
Who can cook real food, not stuff prepackaged or in a box?
HAVE YOU EVER?
- Made biscuits from scratch?
- Fried fresh okra?
- Made sourdough bread?
- Fried chicken?
- Made spaghetti sauce from scratch?
- Made any kind of yeast bread?
- Baked a cake from scratch?
- Made icing from scratch?
- Cooked a pot roast with all the veggies?
- Made chili from scratch?
- Made a meatloaf?
- Made scalloped potatoes?
- Made mac/cheese from scratch?
- Made a jello salad?
- Made peanut brittle?
- Made fudge?
- Made cookies from scratch?
- Cooked a pot of beans from dried bean?
- Cooked a pot of greens?
- Made cornbread from scratch?
- Make a pie dough from scratch?
- Cooked a whole turkey?
- Snapped green beans and cooked them?
- Made mashed potatoes from scratch?
- What’s the most people you have prepared a whole meal for?
- Poached an egg?
- Made pancakes from scratch?
- Roasted vegetables in the oven instead of boiling them?
- Made croissants from scratch?
- Made tuna salad?
- Fried fish?
- Made baked beans?
- Made ice cream from scratch?
- Made jam or jelly?
- Zested an orange or lemon?
- Made grits from scratch?
- Made an omelet?
- Lived in a house without a dishwasher?
- Eaten a bowl of cereal for supper?
