My Content Heart was Born in the Kitchen

"...for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content." -Philippians 4:11

"Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have."
-Hebrews 13:5

"A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked." -Psalm 37:16

"Now godliness with contentment is great gain." -1 Timothy 6:6

About six months before my husband and I began our life together as man and wife, he began preparing for our future by tearing apart the house he purchased. I mean literally, tearing apart, plaster, lathe, ceilings, floors, everything, down to the studs. All that was left of our future home was a skeleton and, of course, endless possibilities (at least as many as our budget would allow). My wonderful, creative, engineer, husband, reworked the whole layout of our quaint, 1904 farmhouse and opened up the floor plan beautifully! The master bedroom became the living room; the large living room became a bathroom and a second bedroom; the second bedroom became the kitchen, the kitchen became the master bedroom; and the laundry room became the master bathroom/closet. The only room in our whole house that remained in its original location was the dining room, and even it was modified.

Now that the background of our undertaking has been revealed, it may come as no surprise that "Mission Home" is not presently complete. Our house is quite livable, however and is even filled with many amenities that have only been seen as "necessary" in my own naive generation. But there was one aspect of the house, that before the wedding, I thought would not be near completion, and I would terribly long for- a kitchen. You see, I love to cook and I love to be in the kitchen, so knowing that I may not have an oven or a sink or a refrigerator or kitchen cabinets or a microwave for at least a year was somewhat disappointing, actually quite disappointing. No home cooked meals to eat with my hubby? No baking bread? No experimenting with new recipes? No kitchen? But still, I made the decision to be content with what I was given.

Our current kitchen setup


Well, we serve a God who cares for every aspect of our lives, and do you know what He did? He provided. Maybe not in any ways we may have anticipated, but the Lord provided all the same. A month before we were married, my husband attended a cabinet auction and brought home two cabinets (for five dollars a piece) that we were able to set up in the corner of our kitchen. Not long after that, a pastor friend and his wife told us that they were preparing to sell a large refrigerator, two pantry cabinets, and a counter top at a very affordable price. So in went the refrigerator, the pantry, and the counter top. A few weeks after the wedding, we bought (an extremely discounted) brand new, gas stove. It came out of a home my father-in-law had sold to an elderly lady who preferred to cook with an electric stove. This may have been the most exciting addition to our kitchen! Now we had everything except a kitchen sink, so we washed our dishes in the laundry tub that was serving as our bathroom sink until we could afford a "real" bathroom sink. When we did save up to by the "real" sink, we were able to move the laundry tub to the kitchen. Not only did we acquire all of this, but for Christmas, my husband's sisters gave us a microwave. Our kitchen had actually become a kitchen! Everything seemed so complete and I was so satisfied! So imagine my excitement a week ago when a friend of the family gave my husband and I cabinets and counter tops and when my husband's co-worker gave us a real kitchen sink! We were able to use two of the cabinets and the counter top (which had the perfect sized rectangular cutout) to set up our sink!


The new sink and cabinets


Do we have the perfect, Country Living, Better Homes and Gardens kitchen? No. But we do have a stove which allows me to prepare my husband's favorite foods, a refrigerator to store the ingredients and leftovers, counter tops on which to work (and experiment), a wonderful sink where I can clean up my messes, and plenty of space to store all of our dishes! It is perfect for us because it is what God provided! I will be fully satisfied with it because what the Lord has given us has magnified His name and demonstrated His love and power. In His awesome provision, God even made sure to provide the newest extra cabinets, leaving unused space for me to store the baby bottles that I just found out I will be needing in about nine months! Yes, we serve a very knowing, powerful, present, loving God!

~Jessica

To Whom are We Submitting - Part 1

God’s creation sings His song for all to hear. How is it that we are prone to miss the music? Are our minds so cluttered with a constant buzz preventing His message from penetrating our hearts? We are presented with plenty of options to fill our time and thoughts, but not all are of any true worth. Options require a choice. Often, it is those very things we choose that crowd out what is most important. The world tells us how our time should be spent if it is to have value. However, the world contradicts what God says. We cannot serve two masters. No matter how we justify our choices, make excuses for our busy schedules, or defend our lack of attentiveness toward our husbands and children, too often our circumstances are of our own making.

Are we seeking the Lord’s will in the major decisions, as well as the details of our lives? Even the most trivial aspects (in our opinion) belong to Him. We profess to pray for His will to be done in our lives, but are we willing to follow when He answers in black and white on the pages of scripture? I see so many women working outside of the home, filling up their time with a career. Then they add another function, even a worthy ministry, to their already busy schedules. Add in their husband and children, and their time and energy are spent. Actually, it is usually the husband and children that get the tail end of their time and energy. Their goals may be well meaning, but the outcome is of little quality. Most importantly, do these goals we have set line up with what God has called us to do? If we are completely honest with ourselves, the answer will most likely be no. Through His wisdom and mercy, the Lord very clearly defines the role of a godly woman. It is our pride and selfish ambition that casts a fog over His words, along with swallowing the lie the world has fed us. I look around at women adding to their plate trying to feel full, but overwhelmed with stress because, in actuality, there is no more room on their plate. At the end of the day, the grumbling of stress is there, but they still find themselves empty. They cannot be full, truly full, outside of God’s will.

The majority of my adult life has been spent giving the “best” part of my day to those beyond my domain. My heart’s desire has always been to be home where I am available to my husband and children. But, in all my early years I was told that was not an acceptable path to travel. True success, I was told, comes from going to college, getting a job, spending money on material things, having a family (not managing it – others would help me do that), and balancing all of these facets for the world to see. I was fed the lie, and I swallowed it. But it left me feeling empty.

Then the Lord revealed to me why the vacancy in my heart remained. I was following what the world said, not my Creator. He put such a strong conviction in my heart to be obedient to His word. It was a transition that took much prayer from me and for me, but the blessings He has showered on my family and me through our submission are immeasurable. Our lifestyle has slightly shifted and sacrifices have been made, but those things are miniscule in comparison to the contentment found in walking the path He set before us.

My choices impact each member of my household. I want my family to know I treasure them above all other earthly blessings. I want my husband to know I love, honor, and respect his leadership. I want the Lord to use me to cast a light across the deceptions of the world so my children can carry that light with them. I want the King of kings to be glorified through joyful service in my domain.

We grow closer to the Lord when we fully trust Him in all our ways, leaning not on our own understanding, acknowledging Him in all we do, and allowing Him to direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6). There is no better place to be than within the boundaries set by our Creator. It is there that His song penetrates our hearts with the fullness only He can sing into us.

Kristina

Gentleness

Gentleness – calm, kind, loving, patient, amiable. This is the wife and mother I strive to be. Not lacking spirit, only lacking anger, bitterness, and exasperation. The Word clearly tells us:

“Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.”1 Peter 3:3-4

My husband and children are precious gifts from the Lord. What a wonderful opportunity to serve my Savior. It is my desire to use my relationships with them as a crucible. I pray that the Lord would refine my heart; polish it to reflect His love.

Kristina

Every Wife's First Duty

"That they may teach the younger 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." -Titus 2:4-5

"In one of his Epistles St. Paul gives the counsel that young wives should be 'workers at home,' signifying that home is the sphere of the wife's duties, and that she is to find her chief work there.

There is widest opportunity in the most fitting service for every woman whose heart God has touched to be a ministering angel to those who need sympathy or help. There are many who are free to serve in public charities, in caring for the poor, for the sick..., for the orphaned and the aged...

But it should be understood that for every wife the first duty is the making and keeping of her own home. Her first and best work should be done there, and till it is well done she has no right to go outside to take up other duties. She is to be a 'worker at home.' She must look upon her home as the one spot on earth for which she alone is responsible and which she must cultivate well for God if she never does anything outside. For her the Father's business is not attending... missionary meetings, and mothers' meetings, ...or even teaching a Sunday-school class, until she has made her own home all that her wisest thought and best skill can make it. There have been wives who in their zeal for Christ's work outside have neglected Christ's work inside their own doors. They have had eyes and hearts for human need and human sorrow in the broad fields lying far out, but neither eye nor heart for the work of love lain about their own feet. The result has been...that while they were winning a place in the hearts of the poor or the sick or the orphan, they were losing their rightful place in the hearts of their own household. Let it be remembered that Christ's work in the home is the first that He gives to every wife, and that no amount of consecrated activities in other spheres will atone in this world or the next for neglect or failure there." -JR Miller

After I read this passage in JR Miller's THE FAMILY, I was overwhelmed, to be honest. It caused me to reevaluate myself and my definition of "a keeper at home." You see, being a keeper at home is more than just keeping a good house, as the Message translation would have us believe. Are clean floors and tidy rooms a part of the equation? Of course. But being a keeper of the home is so much more that that. It is serving my husband, promoting peaceful attitudes, making sure that every facet of my family's living is cared for. It is guarding with a tightly woven filter all that enters the door. It is turning my home, in every aspect, into an atmosphere where Christ's love is expressed to the extent that His aroma spills through every crack and crevice of my home.

To accomplish these tasks and be a "keeper at home," I must first and foremost be at home. If God said that my life's work was to create for Him a beautiful painting, would I only work on it in the evenings after I came home from my "real" job, or on the weekends when my schedule was not so busy? Would I place my painting in another's hands, trusting that they could fulfill God's desire for me to complete it? Of course not! I would pour every ounce of my being into that painting. If the skill did not come easily to me, I would study and practice. I would be ever searching the painting for some flaw to correct, some detail to make it all the more beautiful. I would never stop trying to perfect the painting I was making for my King; it would be my life's work.

But God, in His infinite wisdom did not create me to be a painter, He created my to be a keeper at home. I realize that I cannot realistically spend every waking hour within the walls of my house, but I also realize that I must commit the majority (the first and best) of my time, thought, energy, skill and work to my home and the family therein.

Keeping my home is at the core of my being. How could it not be when it is the first work the Lord gives to every wife? If I forsake my duty as a homemaker by committing my first and best to other noble works, I forsake the very path that the Creator has purposefully lain before my feet. If I forsake my duty as a keeper at home, I blaspheme the word of God. May we all strive to give our first and best to the work God has given us to accomplish.