A Life of Purpose
A Life of Purpose - By M. Roach
A Life of Purpose
By Megan Roach
“So, you’re just staying at home? Aren’t you going to college to get a degree so that you can get a job?
I am sure you all have heard this before. You are probably used to the look of incredulity that people give when you explain that you believe that it is God’s plan for you to stay home.
For some time, whenever people asked me those questions, I almost felt ashamed. I felt like I had to give some other greater, or perhaps bigger, answer. I needed to learn, however, that staying at home isn’t something to be ashamed of or to explain away.
So what is our purpose? Where are we to find the most fulfillment through Christ?
I don’t need to have a career outside the home to make a name for myself, or to “find fulfillment.” I have chosen to follow, by God’s grace, what I believe to be the more rewarding - though perhaps less glamorous – path, the path of homemaking.
Homemaking? What’s homemaking? Well, the biblical term used is keeper at home. We find this term in Titus 2:4-5: “…that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”
Keepers at home do just that – they keep the home. The Greek word for keepers at home means a guard. A guard of a post cannot desert his post all day to go off somewhere else. Everything that guard does must be done to the benefit of his post. Somehow, it does not seem to me that you can possibly be a keeper at home (or a guard of your home) if you are out in the workplace from 8:00 in the morning to 6:00 at night, coming home in just enough time to collapse on the couch after popping in two TV dinners for you and your husband.
Proverbs 31 also speaks of the woman who makes her hands busy within her own home. She takes care of her household while her husband goes out and sits in the gates, not her.
Being a keeper at home is not something to be ashamed of or to despise. Rather, it is a pursuit worth our whole beings for our entire lives. It is a life that is filled with purpose. We can be useful in the kingdom of God through the means of being keepers at home!
I would like to share something the Lord has been showing me through His Word and through the example of godly ladies. He has convicted my heart that I have not always been delighting in doing what He has called me to do. I have not always been excited about fulfilling my role as daughter. I need to see cleaning up the dishes as something wonderful, even glorious!
The story is told of three women washing clothes. A passerby asked the first woman what she was doing.
“Washing clothes,” was the answer. The passerby proceeded to ask the next woman.
“A bit of household drudgery,” came the reply. The passerby went on to ask the last woman.
“I’m the mother of three young children who will someday fill important and useful spheres in life, and washday is a part of my grand task in caring for these souls who shall live forever,” the woman answered with a smile.1
That’s the perspective I think we all need, dear sisters. What was the difference in the third woman? She had purpose in what she was doing. She knew that washing those dirty socks was an opportunity to glorify God by fulfilling His purpose for her.
That pile of laundry needing to be folded, or stacks of dirty dishes needing to be washed, or that meal waiting to be fixed – these are all opportunities to, in a small seemingly insignificant way, affect the next generation.
It is not enough just to do those tasks. We are to fulfill our roles with the right attitude – willingly and joyfully. We must not limit ourselves to the little things, but aim high in fulfilling our God-given role as homemaker and helper to our husband. The Proverbs 31 woman spread her wings as far as she could within her God-given dominion and made her husband successful: engaging in sales, showing hospitality to the poor and the needy, starting entrepreneurial endeavors… the list goes on.
This woman enjoyed her work! She didn’t sit around after her laundry was folded and the dishes were washed. She delighted so much in her work that she found even more tasks to keep her hands busy. Proverbs 31:27 says, “She looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness.” She kept on going. She loved her job!
Minute by minute, we can take dominion in the home. But it all starts with the little things. Never forget that big things are made up of little things, as the writer reminds us in this song.
Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land
So the little minutes,
Simple though they seem
Make the mighty ages of eternity.2
Little by little, we can make the difference. Our fathers and brothers need to be out there taking dominion. But they can’t do it without our help. Our mothers are to be help-meets to their husbands. We can help them by meeting the needs of little siblings that need their shoes tied or even just a glass of water. Ask your mother how you can be of more assistance to her. Ask your father how you can make him more successful in helping him carry out his vision for your home.
Our goal is to glorify God in all that we do. And we do that by living lives dedicated to the task He has designed us for - being keepers at home. When we do, we will find true fulfillment in this life of homemaking– a life of purpose.
1Paraphrase from Elisabeth Elliot, Joy for the Journey, p.15
2 Lyrics by Ron Hamilton and Julia Carney