The homemaker's job
Take time and scheduling, for example. A major manufacturer may have huge, impressive-looking charts and graphs showing corporate production schedules. How all the parts that go into a car get into the new car you order is a modern production miracle. But it only took time and scheduling.
The homemaker gets the family off to school and work, well fed and clothed, does the shopping, pays the utility bill, meets the kids when they return from school, takes Susie to the orthodontist and Jimmy to the YOU basketball practice. She has dinner ready in the evening and during her "extra time" cleans the windows, strips the wax from the kitchen floor, calls the repairman to fix the washing machine, makes an appointment for counseling about her children at school, visits ailing Mrs. Smith and drops by the post office on the way home.
Have you men reading this article ever stopped to think about how much a wife — a homemaker — has to do? Running a smooth-flowing household takes the skill of a corporate president and then some. And that is the same skill it will take to be over several cities in God's Kingdom.
A housewife is responsible for making many decisions and solving problems. Let's say your family is struggling with inflated food costs (who isn't struggling just to keep up?). In many cases the housewife is responsible for the food budget. In order to feed the family well, she 'checks the sales, perhaps buying vegetables at one store, bread at another, coffee down the street and beef somewhere else.
But she has to be an efficiency expert as well. She has to consider the cost of gasoline to get to all the stores and the time it takes to shop. Decisions have to be made. If she really is an effective executive she will get the shopping done at the best prices and get other things done too.
Then there is delegation. Not doing it all yourself is the name of the game. Many a harried housewife cleans up after the kids, makes all the beds, washes all the clothes. Somehow she just never gets around to delegating these jobs to the children.
As dean of students at Ambassador College, I was often amused — even shocked a few times — when, over the years, some students would come to college not even knowing how to make a bed. Mom had always done it for them. Some students literally did not know how to operate the college's washers and dryers. And many did not know how to put in an honest, full
Not only is the mother who does it all alone making life much harder for herself, she is doing her children a great injustice. One of a parent's major responsibilities is to teach his or her children how to work.
Delegate! That means teaching the children to do the dishes, wash and iron their clothes and make their beds. Children should learn to 'cook, shop, repair things and help in every part of home life. So Mom is a teacher as well.
Let's go through a typical example. It's time for spring cleaning in your home. The first order of business is to decide which parts of the job can be delegated. For example, your teenage son can dismantle the bed and take it out of the room. The girls can empty their own drawers, but maybe they are not big enough to put the new shelf paper in — you'll want to do that.
So you make a schedule of who will do what jobs. Be sure you match the proper job to the proper person. Heavy lifting cannot be done by small children. Set realistic goals for them. Put the kids on a time schedule. Give them 45 minutes, for instance, to put everything from the dresser drawers into the cardboard boxes and to set aside everything they want to throw away. You can now go to another part of the house for 45 minutes and need only to check on their progress once or twice.
If you adopt such a plan to get a room clean several things will be accomplished. The room will get cleaned. The children will share in the responsibility. 'You will get another job done. You will have applied the tools of effective management. And you will have developed skills that will be used in ruling with Christ in the world tomorrow.
Appreciate the wife
The woman who decides to be a homemaker is choosing as high an occupation as it is possible to choose. No corporate executive, great financier, famous entertainer or sports personality has a greater calling or profession. It's time we all realized that.
The training of the homemaker prepares her for the Kingdom of God just as other people's jobs prepare them. God has not established an elitist system of "better" jobs and "lesser" jobs. God does not look down on the janitor, laborer, farmer or housewife, while he looks up to the doctor, lawyer or banker.
Human societies established hierarchies of respect — class systems. Some professions seem to carry greater honor — certainly they carry higher financial rewards. But no profession will carry more social status than any other in God's Kingdom. This does not mean a pseudo communistic state will exist. God's Word is clear that some individuals will work harder and grow spiritually stronger than others in this life; those who do will qualify for greater rewards. But the development of character has little to do with what job you occupy now.
But, partially because of the modern feminist movement, the role of homemaker and housewife has been relegated to practically the bottom rung on the ladder of respect in this age. Women have been made to feel that if they are not in the battle for top executive jobs in the professions, they are not fulfilling their potential and aren't worth much.
It just isn't true! There is no higher calling for a woman than to be a homemaker — a full-time wife and mother. No higher calling!
I may not win a popularity contest with the women's liberation movement, but that remains the truth. On the other hand, neither should men try to subordinate and suppress women — keep them "barefoot and pregnant" — while men go out and play the big shots. God's Word is clear about the roles of men and women. They are both made in the image of God and are equal (Gen. 1:27), and in marriage each has particular responsibilities (Eph. 5:21-33). Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church (verse 25), and that includes appreciating them — treating them with proper respect, "as being heirs together of the grace of life" (I Pet. 3:7).
My wife holds a college degree and taught school for two years before our marriage. I consider her an extremely capable woman. But when we married more than 20 years ago, she began to devote all her talents and efforts to being a homemaker — a wife and mother. We have had five children, two of them now in college, and it has taken her full time to fulfill her role and responsibility. She has been developing the skills to qualify her every bit for the position she will be given in God's Kingdom, if she continues to grow and overcome and is privileged to be born into the Family of God at the return of Christ.
The quality that carries over to the Kingdom from this physical life is character. As Herbert W. Armstrong has often stated, God will not save anyone He cannot rule. The test of character in this life is the development of faith and obedience. Any profession — laborer, executive or homemaker has built into it the training necessary in preparation for spiritual responsibility in the world tomorrow. Then, unlimited power will be given to those who are changed to immortal beings.
Housewives train just as much in the character-developing process. Positions of ruler ship are not passed out based on how many dollars one controlled or how many employees over which one had authority, but rather on what kind of overcoming one does — on how well one does with. what he or she has to do with.
God has, in His infinite wisdom, provided the means and opportunity in this lifetime for training and character development for all people whom He calls. It is God's desire and His will for us to be saved.
Male and female are terms that apply to this physical life. In the Kingdom we neither marry nor are given in marriage (Matt. 22:30). Resurrected from the dead and changed from mortal to immortal, we shall all serve with Christ, ruling with Him for a thousand years and then fulfilling our destinies for eternity.
We have by no means exhausted this subject, so important to this physical life. There is much yet to be said about husbands, wives and the family. Next time we will analyze the qualities of the "perfect wife." You might be surprised at what the Bible has to say about homemaking and motherhood.