“No other success can compensate for failure in the home”

The quote above adorns a tiny sampler I stitched 30 years ago while my small children napped.  A cozy, cottage-style home accompanies the slogan. It reminds me of the quaint little house my grandmother lived in. It hung in my kitchen for years as a much-needed reminder of the value of my work as a stay-at-home mother.

Unfortunately, success in the home seems to be the last thing on the minds of many women today. The importance of the home is often overlooked. I’ve always believed the greatest mission field exists within the walls of our own homes. Whether you live in a small apartment or a large house, you have a mission field.

God brings people to our homes through family members, friends, or friends of our children. We have a unique opportunity to touch the lives of each person who passes through our doorway. We have a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel with others as they see our faith lived out in our homes. If we are only focused on things away from home, vital ministry opportunities will be lost.

In our modern world, home has gotten a bad rap, but we see in scripture that God placed a huge importance on a woman’s work at home.  God entrusted us with the care of our homes and loved ones.

The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things…that they may admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God not be blasphemed. (Titus 2: 3-5)

In Titus 2: 4-5, the older women are instructed to teach the younger women several things, and one of those things is to be homemakers, so that the word of God may not be blasphemed. That’s a pretty strong verse of scripture.

God’s word is blasphemed when we profess to be Christians, but fail to walk in obedience to what His word tells us to do. In other words, we talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.

Many unbelievers want nothing to do with the church and the Christian faith because of the hypocrisy of those who profess to be believers, but fail to live out their faith. In the Bible we learn that caring for the home is one way for a woman to live out her faith.

This certainly does not mean women should only do things inside the home or not have jobs outside the home. However, it does bring to light the importance and priority of women caring for their homes and loved ones before being involved with things outside the home.

Homemaking is not a popular topic today. From elementary school through high school, young girls are encouraged to focus on career and education. This is so embedded in our culture today that the young girl who desires to be a wife, mother, and homemaker without a career would be looked down upon.

We don’t teach our daughters that it is okay to pursue homemaking. There is nothing wrong with girls pursuing careers, but we also must teach them the importance of homemaking and the value of work inside the home.

Some young women lack homemaking skills and have no idea how to manage a home. Many have never seen it modeled in their mothers, and sometimes what they have seen modeled is discontentment with homemaking tasks and a focus on things outside the home.

Unfortunately,  we are often so busy and caught up in our own lives that we don’t have time to teach the younger women anything. Worse yet, some of the things the older women are teaching the younger women are not biblical truth.

This is something we all need to be careful about. It’s easy to get caught up in the way things are done today and view biblical values as outdated. We must be careful to offer up guidance that is solid biblical advice and not something we heard on the latest daytime talk show.

I wonder how often we fall into the world’s way of thinking rather than listening to what God’s word says about our roles as women. How often do we live selfishly in pursuit of what we desire rather than what God desires for us? Are we content in our homes, seeing them as our primary area of ministry? What are we teaching the younger women regarding how to manage a home? Most importantly, what is our example teaching others? Actions always speak louder than words.

We must prayerfully seek God’s wisdom daily, taking seriously our roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers, and remember the importance of the home as a mission field.

We can have great success outside the home in many areas, but if we fail at home, we have failed. No other success will ever compensate for failure in the home.