'Your home is holy ground. And you are holy ground'
-Donna Otto
I believe homemaking is a calling. Supporting your husband, raising godly children, creating an environment that your family can come home to and relax and feel God's peace and love is quite a mission.
It's not always easy, in fact, it almost never is, but that isn't to say it isn't enjoyable. Finding your purpose as a wife and mum can turn even the most mundane chores into an act of love for your family.
Aspects of homemaking I particularly enjoy are:
- Baking and cooking
- Budget Planning and living frugally
- Sewing and Embroidery
- Home organisation
- Home Education
Bible Study
As I'm getting older I have started to take my bible study more seriously. I'm starting to realise that I don't automatically agree with everything I hear preached, just because it's by someone I usually think highly of.
As I started to try and discover for myself what the bible had to say on particular issues, I've become more excited and passionate about my study, in a way I had never imagined I could. God's word never ceases to amaze me.
Some really helpful sites I have found are oneplace - where I can organise all my notes, but also gives me access to just about every translation of the bible, commentary, sermon helps, devotionals and podcasts; and Koinonia House - which also offers free podcasts and articles and teaching at a level and depth I can only assume is of a standard you would receive at seminary or theological college. It is truly technical and thorough in a way I have never been taught before. The best part? It makes for a fantastic jumping off point to launch your own studies, never quite giving you the full answer, but hinting at things that will send you off to do your own research - much more satisfying.
Hebrew
I am completely fascinated by the Hebrew language. Did you know it is theONLY language in the entire world that is both semetic (the characters tell you the meaning of the word) and phonetic (the characters tell you how to say the word)?
Each character also has a numerical value, similar to the greek system, and there are some amazingly interesting 'coincidences' regarding those values. For example, if you take the value of every character in the hebrew word for pregnancy (sounds like 'herayon' - I have babies on the brain right now!) and add them together you get 271.
Guess how long the average pregnancy is?
That's right 271 days!
There are thousands of fascinating examples of gematria (playing with the numerical values of words) in the hebrew language, and on top of being both phonetic and semetic, it seems almost impossible that this language was designed by a person, let alone evolved over time!
Learning some hebrew (and I hope I will advance further) has really enhanced my bible study and made for some interesting reading too.
If you want to know a bit more about it I thoroughly recommend Chuck Missler's book 'Cosmic Codes'. The beginning is a little dry, but you kind of have to read it to understand the rest, and once you get half way you will not want to put it down!
I am passionate about mentoring and have been really inspired by the 'homemakers by choice' organisation in the US. My dream is to start a similar organisation in the UK where women can mentor and be mentored in a way that is structured to make it easy. Meeting regularly with others who have been through the stage of life that they are currently in, for support, guidance and sometimes just a hug, is invaluable. Having been through a postnatal illness, I know it was important for me to hear from other people who had come out the other side of it, and the more I talk about this, the more women begin to approach me and suddenly feel able to share what they are going through. Being able to offer encouragement and hope to women who are walking through a desert or a storm is a great blessing, particularly when I get to hear that they have come out of the other side.
I believe mentoring and discipleship to be a biblical mandate, and I would dearly love to be part of an organisation that facilitates those kind of relationships.
Crafts
I guess this is really an extension to homemaking, although I enjoy the creative process much more than actually making something useful! I enjoy embroidery and designing, journalling and I have just started learning about digital scrap booking. I think this is going to be not only fun for me, but an excellent way of keeping a neat record of the kids work if we home school as they get older.
I am using a free program at the moment, if you want to download it too I'll put the link at the bottom. There are loads of sites offering free downloads for digital scrapping, so get creative!
