A woman will either be a blessing or a curse to her household: she is either building or demolishing according to Proverbs 14:1. The woman who has wisdom is constructing; the foolish woman who has no wisdom is destroying. There doesn’t appear to be a middle road; a woman is doing one thing or the other. The one results in peace and blessing; the other brings confusion and discord. The home will either be growing in beauty or on its way to becoming a heap of rubble.

What is it that makes the difference? The presence or absence of wisdom in the person given the responsibility of managing the home, and that is the woman. So where do we get this indispensable wisdom and what is it exactly? We know that the prerequisite for wisdom is the fear of the Lord. A God-fearing woman is teachable and receptive to godly instruction. Read More

Where do we get this notion that being organized is next to godliness? I’m pretty sure we get it from magazines and ads in those magazines. And though they really may be great magazines full of super recipes and ideas that inspire us, they can also set us up to start laying guilt trips on ourselves. Something like this: “If I was really together, my closets would look like those featured in Martha’s Living, where stacks of sheets are tied with color-coded ribbons.” Just a little reminder here: Martha has fleets of housekeepers who wash and iron those sheets and keep them tied up with ribbons. You, on the other hand, do not.

Now I do not begrudge her. My hat’s off to her for all she has done to restore the honor due to the fine arts of domesticity. She obviously has a gift of organization, I really appreciate her creativity, and I read her magazine. But I’m just saying that my closets are not photogenic, and I don’t think I need to feel too crummy about it. Do you? Now, I do regularly try to rearrange them and tidy them up by making a run to Goodwill. But I feel pretty fantastic if all the sheets are washed and back on the beds. Ribbons? Hardly.

Christian women tend to be pretty hard on themselves in these areas of organization. I sometimes slip back into thinking that if only I could be more organized, then I would truly be holy (or rather, I would feel pretty holy). I remember telling my husband something like this years ago, and he replied with profundity: “What makes you think I would want to be married to you if you were more organized?” Now this made me think. Read More

In case you aren’t checking on Lady Kirkbay regularly, I wanted to send you over to see all the inspiring crafts the ladies are producing by the truck load. And Bekah posted a picture of her homemade chore chart which she calls “an attempt at managing the Merkle circus.” Be sure to check it out!

This is a pep talk I gave somewhere about how God takes the tasks that we do (as we offer them up to Him), no matter how mundane they may seem to us, and He uses them to transform the culture around us.

Women often give themselves a poor job description. This happens all the time. (“I’m just a stay-at-home mom. Excuse me for living.”) But God has given us good work to do and we should realize how much He values it and how effective it really is.

Scripture tells women to adorn themselves in good works (1 Tim. 2:9-10). A couple Read More