Page 52 - Sarah's Children

The wise woman builds her house,

But the foolish tears it down with her own hands.

Proverbs 14:1

Homemakers

hortly after our daughter was born my wife Tony quit her job at a local lumber
company where she oversaw the distribution of the payroll. Ever since that
Stime Tony has not worked outside of the home, but she has definitely worked.
Each year when I fill out our tax forms and it asks for the occupation of my spouse
I put “Homemaker.” Besides this being a general title given to women that do not
work outside the home, it is also a scripturally correct identification.

The scripture above states, “The wise woman builds her house.” Certainly this
scripture is not speaking about a woman physically constructing the building in
which she and her family dwell. A woman does not have to be a building contractor
to be wise. Building one’s house goes far beyond anything that can be accomplished
with a hammer and nails and saw.

We have already seen that the scriptures declare that a woman was created for man,
and that she is intended to be man’s helper. This is a critical matter to keep in mind
as a woman seeks to build her house. A woman will find her greatest fulfillment in
accomplishing that purpose for which God created her. This does not mean that all
women must get married, but whether they are married or unmarried they will
benefit greatly by understanding the purpose of woman’s creation and the order of
authority and government established by God.

In the last chapter we saw that women can produce life and godliness in the lives of
their men as they surrender their tongues to be used of God. A woman can elicit from
her husband, or other male figure, a desire to rise up to higher realms, to pursue
godliness, to avoid evil, to put away anger, to be conformed to the image of Christ
whose image he was originally created to bear. She does this as she affirms man and
speaks godly words of encouragement, faith and hope to him.

One of the woman’s chief tools in building her house is her tongue and it should be
governed by love. The foundation of any home must be love, for love must be the
motivator of every action. If our words and deeds are not arising out of love, then
they must be finding their source in some other, inferior motive such as selfishness,