Waking up early and having quiet time, making my husband breakfast and then seeing him off to work. Getting my kids up and ready for the day, cleaning up the house and making it feel like a home, having weekly meal plans and organized shopping trips, making beautiful meals and baked goods and raising and teaching my kids how to love Jesus and giving them fun and beautiful memories to cherish.

These are all things I want to attain, and I am well aware it sounds old-fashioned and archaic but to me it sounds beautiful and well worth it

But I have been learning over the years that being a wife and mom is so much more than making sure your house is pretty...

its learning to lay down your wants and desires and submit to your husband as unto Jesus (Ephesians 5:22-24)

(While still being able to express your desires but not trying to force your will, but together asking for God's)( Matt 6:9)

its learning how to provide for your family nourishment physically & emotionally (Proverbs 31:15()

its learning how to be patient when the bad attitudes come from your kids (1 Corinthians 13:4)

& Learning to choose diligence over laziness to make sure your family is taken care of and comfortable (Philippians 2:3-4)

As hard and difficult those things can be, it never outweighs the beauty and blessing of it all.

Because even in the hard seasons of things not happening as you hoped or raising and disciplining young kids and telling them the same thing 100 times or being nauseous and throwing up for months and not being able to do anything mentioned above :) we are being shaped and made more like Jesus so we can look forward to coming out of it better than we went into it, as we learn to trust Jesus.

My goals for being a homemaker haven't changed, in fact I want to do and be more as the years go on

but it's learning HOW to do it and how to do it graciously

and also doing what I can with what I have been given.

So maybe the Lost Art of Homemaking is more of a journey for me to learn

how to do all the things I am able

or at least give it a try and hopefully encourage other women to give it a try with me.

And maybe it's a place for me to admit I don't have it altogether as much as I wish I did and learning from other women things I never knew!

So today, wherever you are in life I want to encourage you to let Jesus be the light in your home (or room)

to know that Jesus provides for His kids each day and will take care of those things we lack, and He knows the things we need before we ask (Matt. 6:8)

I also want to encourage you to try that new recipe you've been thinking about but worried how it might turn out (I have many hah!)

or to fold that load of laundry that's been staring at you for days,

to turn on music and dance with your kids while they still want too,

to leave the dishes in the sink to go and watch the Christmas movie with your family,

or to maybe clean the dreaded bathroom and then obviously reward yourself with a treat.

There is a time and place to do the work, and also to make memories with your family even if there are chores left undone for a bit

Whatever the encouragement you may need, maybe to get some things done you have been putting off

or to let some stuff go and enjoy your family more

may we be able to trust Jesus and know He gives us what we need for today!

And to remember that this season we celebrate God giving us exactly what we needed,

a newborn Saviour to rescue us from our sins.

Merry almost Christmas!

xo,

Heather

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"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord"

Ephesians 5:22

"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others."

Philippians 2:3-4

"She also rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household, and a portion for her maidservants."

Proverbs 31:15

"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil."

1 Corinthians 13:4-5

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