"Oh, that's right, you're just a housewife..." those words have echoed in my mind for the past 20 years. Said by a "successful" restaurant owner my husband had done some contract work for at the time, this middle-aged man had his sites set on the tangibleness of a "job" being based in the money we make or the education applied. I smiled gracefully, though bruised inwardly. Here my husband and I sat, enjoying a rare dinner alone in this cozy lake side restaurant, soaking up the gorgeous mountain view, feeling complete in our roles as husband and wife, when Mr. Owner invited himself to sit with us and shoot the breeze on life and work and his pride in the newly remodeled oppulant restaurant we were dining in.
It was that moment which has become the pinpoint of my passion to BE more than just a housewife and make it known: we are not just anything.
When did success begin to hinge on the bank-roll or degree hanging on the wall? Who determined that raising children, caring for a home, and administering the plethora of dailies wasn't enough to "count" as viable work? Even now, after 27 years of caring for home and family, with my youngest peering into graduation and adult life, she isn't the only one being asked, "What are going to do after graduation." Only, for me, I'm having a hard time understand how my work just stops when her diploma is in hand.
Won't there still be floors to scrub? Laundry to wash? Dinners to cook? Life to manage? Is housewifery somehow lacking a key ingredient to be considered "success"? What if, for just a moment, everyone took a step back from the bustle of money and degree drives and actually saw and acknowledged where success starts.... it isn't at the teller counter as you cash in your paycheck, nor is it with college degree in hand.
Success starts in the home with women who have successfully nurtured their family and made the house somewhere people long and love to come back to.
***
She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the gates.
but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the gates.
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Blessings,
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