Flourishing Homemaker (Part II)

The other parts of this series: Part I.

In Part I of this series, I suggested three reasons that might affect how homemakers evaluate their worth and contributions. In Part II, I would like to delve in reason number three, which is how we find and bring out other versions of us (in addition to being homemakers and stay-at-home moms) that God has already put inside of us to make us a more whole person.

 

Homemaker as God’s Handiwork

Ephesians 2:10: For we are God’s handiwork (Greek: poiema), created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The Greek word Poiema is translated into handiwork in the verse above, it is also the root word for poem. Each of us is God’s poetry, His masterful work of art, the product of His creative activity. Every creation gives glory to its creator. Thus each of us is an instrument to reveal the glory of our maker, God.

We are created by God in His image, both man and woman are created in His likeness. This means we mirror His characteristics and capabilities. Being a woman, I can feel His feminine nurturing character. Being a parent, I can feel His father’s heart toward His children. When I love others, I feel His compassion for people. When I create something, I feel His creative energy flows through me.

Parents are proud of their children when the children reflect the excellent quality of the parents. When they do, they delight their parents so much. In a way, the children bless and bring glory to their parents. As God’s image bearer when we create something, we reflect the Creator aspect of God. As we reveal more aspects of God in us, we become more whole as a person. When we create good things, whatever our craft is, we are delighting and glorifying God because we are reflecting and imaging Him.

We are God’s handiwork, His masterful creation, His poiema. When God creates us as His children, He plans for us to also create our own poiema, our own handiwork which is the good works He has already prepared for us in accordance with the unique way He has made us.

Our hearts are moved by the hearts of an artist, a writer, a chef, a friend, and many others, in the music they sing, from the counsels they give, through the food they cook, in the arts they create, etc. These are the good works God wants us to do, to move people closer to Him and His truths through our actions and creations.

God creates and designs each of us uniquely. Each of us is a different poem that will bless Him and other people in different ways. We declare His glory and we bless others by bringing people closer to God, to His love and His truths. These are our good works, whatever our crafts are.

Being a homemaker or a stay-at-home mother does not mean our contributions only touch the people within our home circle, but the good works prepared for us can very well extend to our local church, community, society and beyond. We can do our good works from the position and place He has put us, with the seeds of desires and talents He has given us. We pour out what is inside of us as an offering to Him. 

Exodus 31:3-5: and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts.

1 Kings 7:14: Huram was filled with wisdom, with understanding and with knowledge to do all kinds of bronze work.

God equipped these people in the Old Testament to create His tabernacle and the temple furnishings with the needed skills, wisdom, knowledge and understanding. The same unchanging God is also equipping each of us and giving us the talents/gifts needed to pursue our own ‘craft’ in various forms. What we create can either be material art such as beautiful music, gorgeous paintings, delicious dishes, delightful trinkets, or immaterial art, such as giving soulful wise counsels, producing life-giving atmospheres, creating innovative ideas and entertainments.

1 Corinthians 12:4-6: There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working (giftedness), but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

1 Peter 4:10: Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

Greg Ogden in The Essential Commandments said: when we are operating from the center of our giftedness, we are energized, empowered, in the flow, living out what God has designed us to do. But this still requires discipline to stay focused.

So we are responsible for using and operating our gifts to serve others. When we do that, we will feel energized and in the flow. When we do that, we are a more whole person and glorify our maker. But in order to do that, we need focus and discipline.

Create Our Handiwork in the Deep Work

Cal Newport, in his book Deep Work, defined ‘deep work’ within professional endeavors as hard work to produce something impactful, while ‘deep work’ outside of professional endeavors means giving your full attention to the work true to your values. When you do deep work, you’re focusing on one thing for a specified period. You need to sustain undistracted attention in your deep work. When you do deep work, you invest a chunk of your time to a work that matters; you live intentionally and use your time well. Shallow work, by his definition, is everything else.

For homemakers, our deep work might be when we do our meal planning, when we have a heart-to-heart conversation with our child, or when we take mental notes of our family member’s likings, needs and behaviors. It is a luxury, especially for moms of young children to have an undistracted block of time to focus. Our inner thinking life is so fragmented with constant little interruptions. It is hard to focus and not be distracted by a myriad of things in the day-to-day. That is why stay-at-home moms often feel inadequate because it’s hard to hold our minds together. We long for the quiet confidence that comes from a well collected and focused mind.

It used to frustrate me greatly when my mind had to work intermittently, and it took time to get used to it. Without in-depth and productive activities that engage the mind, a sense of hollowness in a person will amplify. I used to fill the gaps of time by consuming easy entertainment, dabbling in social media or gathering in surface social settings. Sure enough, the hollowness prevailed. I didn’t realize what I was missing, but now I know the keys to my wholeness were opportunities to express my gifts/talents in deep work, to live intentionally and to use my time well.

Important Note: The added benefit for mothers is as we immerse ourselves in our deep work, we are also exemplifying for our kids to be productive in their own deep work.

A Writer’s Journey (my Story)

My eyes are not quite sensible to identify visually appealing things, which is why my husband often shops clothes for me. My brain-hand coordination is also not very keen and steady to make material arts like painting, sculpting, knitting, baking. My nose is not sensitive to smells, I am always amazed at my husband that can differentiate distinct perfumes and aromatherapies. My ears are not good with rhythms and pitches. I am a foodie, but I do not have refined taste buds.  Overall, it’s quite a tough existence haha…

But I love words, thoughts and ideas, they have always moved me. I lose track of time crafting beautiful word structures, laboring over each word to express concepts and notions as beautiful as I can, stringing thoughts together to perpetuate ideas and make impacts. I choose words as my modes of expression to pour out what is in my head and my heart. I love to observe and connect the dots. I enjoy toying with ideas, impressions and intuitions to gain insights. I am excited to share my reflections with others; it is like finding a puzzle piece and trying to make sense of this picture of life. Writing is my poiema and one of my outlets now, but it continues to be a journey of discovery for me.

The idea of wanting to be a writer sounded silly, and it also echoed a narcissistic tone even to my own ears. Who do you think you are? Why do you feel your writing will be worthy for others’ consumptions? Questions in the same shade prevented me from taking the first step for years. I reasoned I am not someone famous with amazing feats or stories, I do not have high expertise in specific fields, I am just a regular next-door, stay-at-home mother.

But the voice and the tugging in my heart persisted, I began to verbalize my inner wish to my discipleship group. “I think I want to write,” I timidly confessed. It’s so hard to say it out loud the first time, as I myself was very unsure. Then I said it again and again, I repeated to more people. Slowly the voice was gaining strength, it sounded less and less strange to my ears. And then before I knew it, I had no way out. Since I had already shared my aspiration to enough number of people, it would be an embarrassment to bail out. It’s now the time to just do it.

A creation begs for audiences, constituents or customers to enjoy, take pleasure and benefit from it. Who would want to read what I’ve written? Yet I realize it is not a quantity game. For sure, God is our audience number one. He has already put the seeds of a creator within us, and He delights in us and our creations when we mirror His capacity as a creator. Even if God is the only audience for all our endeavors, He is enough.

The second audience is ourselves, our craft blesses us because it strengthens and affirms the way we are made. It also makes us more alive, energized, empowered and gives us immense fulfillment. Next in line are our family and friends, our community, and so forth. Our scale of impact is up to God. God will enlarge our territory, our sphere of influence as He pleases (1 Chronicles 4:10, Acts 17:26), however big or small it is, we should steward it well.

WhaT IS YOUR NARRATIVE?

So I hope you will also be encouraged to take the steps required in this journey of discovery, to find out your crafts and manifest them to bless God and others. Pay attention to how God Himself has crafted you and the opportunities, the burdens He has placed in and around you. What is the narrative that is taking place in your life? Don’t let life distract you off the beaten path from your main God-given plot.

Emily P. Freeman, an author, once said: “the world might not need another writer, but the world needs a better you. So if by writing you can be a better version of yourself, then by all means, write.”

Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy said, “the most important thing about you is not the things you have achieved, but the person you have become.”

At the end of the day, it is not about our accomplishments, but it is about the person we are becoming when we create to bless God and others, reflecting Him, His glory, His truth, His beauty and His love. For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! (Romans 11:36).

God has already given His servants talents to multiply and good works to do. When you exhibit God’s love to others, when you express your creativity in your art whatever it is, when you apply your intelligence to administer people or projects, that is your good work, your art, your poiema. When you have something to offer, and you offer it for the benefit of others, you are blessed as you bless others. Your craft is an expression of yourself, which makes you come alive and flourish.

When you make meaningful contributions through your expressions, you glorify God because you become an expression of God, you are manifesting Him. This is the transcendent value of your good work beyond this passing Earth.

This is a question for you. Fill in the blanks: I am made in God’s image. I am made for ______________. I want to bless God and my neighbors with my craft, which is ______________.

I want to invite other homemakers to thrive and flourish beyond survival and maintenance mode, to bless God and others with the talents/gifts given you, with your craft, with your full creative expressions. You are the servant, the beloved and the co-heir of creations with Christ. It is a calling, a vocation (Latin’s word for calling: vocãtiõ) and it’s also your birthright. You are the image bearer of the Creator of this universe, you are to declare His glory through your unique capacity and capability.

I find this verse in Acts 13:36 so beautiful, describing how David had served God’s purpose in his own generation. I want to serve His purpose in my fleeting days, just like David. I hope this writing will propel you forward in your journey of discovery.

Dear sisters, let’s close the thoughts with this prayer from Psalm 90 and a wonderful worship song by Keith and Kristyn Getty.

Psalm 90:17: May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands.

Before You I Kneel (A Worker’s Prayer)

Before You I kneel, my Master and Maker,
To offer the work of my hands.
For this is the day You’ve given Your servant;
I will rejoice and be glad

For the strength I have to live and breathe,
For each skill Your grace has given me,
For the needs and opportunities
That will glorify Your great name.

Before You I kneel and ask for Your goodness
To cover the work of my hands.
For patience and peace to shape all my labor,
Your grace for thorns in my path.

Flow within me like a living stream,
Wear away the stones of pride and greed
‘Til Your ways are dwelling deep in me
And a harvest of life is grown.

Before You we kneel, our Master and Maker;
Establish the work of our hands.
And order our steps to seek first Your kingdom
In every small and great task.

May we live the gospel of Your grace,
Serve Your purpose in our fleeting days,
Then our lives will bring eternal praise
And all glory to Your great name.

 

The other parts of this series: Part I.

There are also other related articles in the Resource Page.

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