This is part 3 of the Monday series Whoso Findeth a Wife
In Psalms 128:3 the woman is called the fruitful vine. In the Psalm this refers primarily to bearing children, but it can also be true in other areas in which the wife acts as a producer for her husband.
The most important thing a homemaker produces is exactly what her title
says—a home. Unfortunately, homemaking often has a bad name.
The woman at home is portrayed as a leech on her husband’s arm—always
consuming and never producing. In this portrait, she is sitting in her easy chair, a television in front of her, a telephone on one side, romance novels and sales catalogues on the other—or maybe a computer monitor or iPhone these days?. On the one day a week she is not reading, gossiping, or staring, she is
out spending her husband’s hard-earned money on more clothes, a shampoo and set, and a basket full of overpriced convenience food. The beds are never made. The clothes may be washed, but one always has to pick through the laundry basket for clean underwear. Dinner varies from Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee to Stouffer’s, depending upon the occasion. The children care for themselves,
coming and going as they please. She does not know if they have done their homework or Bible lessons; she has no idea if they are being taught evolution, situation ethics, humanism, or any other atheistic –ism. If her children were kidnapped, she wouldn’t know what they were last wearing, when they left the house, with whom, or in what direction—she sleeps in, you see.
That is our image, ladies, and some of it is our fault. We started believing our detractors when they told us how unfulfilling our lives were. The asked us if
we work, and instead of proudly saying, “Of course, I work; I’m a homemaker,” we hung our heads and m uttered an apology about being “just a housewife.” Titus 2:5 calls the woman a worker at home. We have been so busy
emphasizing the “at home,” that we have forgotten to emphasize “worker.” No, we do not punch a time clock, but that makes it more difficult, not less. We have to make ourselves take the time and do the work. We are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week—no holidays.
It takes as many hours to stretch a dollar (gardening, canning, sewing,
coupon clipping, comparison shopping, baking from scratch) as it does to earn
one. It takes more time to read and discuss a Bible story that it does to plop a child in front of a television set. It takes extra time to read up on humanism and monitor our children’s schoolwork for its insidious signs; then it takes old-fashioned nerve to speak up about it. It takes more self-discipline and creativity to be a homemaker than any other career in the world!
But it is a most rewarding calling if it is handled as God intended. When one truly produces a home, people notice, not just because the housework is done, but because the atmosphere of the home is carried everywhere with the family members. A haven, peaceful and secure—the place you run to not from—that is a home.
The fruitful vine lives to produce. She is never resentful or regretful. When we do as Titus 2:4 says and learn to love our husbands (not just “fall” in love) and to love our children, the homes we produce for them will show our love because all the work we do is for them. The fruitful vine asks nothing in return from those who pick her grapes. Because the fruit is so plenteous and good, her loved ones shower her with care and attention.
What kind of fruit are you producing, ladies? Is it scarce? Tough? Undersized? Seedy? Sour? Does it come like a fortune cookie with a little message inside: “(Sigh) and after all I’ve done for you….”
It takes extra effort to be a fruitful vine. Let’s get to work and change our image to what it used to be.
Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates,” Prov 31:31.
Dene Ward
In Psalms 128:3 the woman is called the fruitful vine. In the Psalm this refers primarily to bearing children, but it can also be true in other areas in which the wife acts as a producer for her husband.
The most important thing a homemaker produces is exactly what her title
says—a home. Unfortunately, homemaking often has a bad name.
The woman at home is portrayed as a leech on her husband’s arm—always
consuming and never producing. In this portrait, she is sitting in her easy chair, a television in front of her, a telephone on one side, romance novels and sales catalogues on the other—or maybe a computer monitor or iPhone these days?. On the one day a week she is not reading, gossiping, or staring, she is
out spending her husband’s hard-earned money on more clothes, a shampoo and set, and a basket full of overpriced convenience food. The beds are never made. The clothes may be washed, but one always has to pick through the laundry basket for clean underwear. Dinner varies from Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee to Stouffer’s, depending upon the occasion. The children care for themselves,
coming and going as they please. She does not know if they have done their homework or Bible lessons; she has no idea if they are being taught evolution, situation ethics, humanism, or any other atheistic –ism. If her children were kidnapped, she wouldn’t know what they were last wearing, when they left the house, with whom, or in what direction—she sleeps in, you see.
That is our image, ladies, and some of it is our fault. We started believing our detractors when they told us how unfulfilling our lives were. The asked us if
we work, and instead of proudly saying, “Of course, I work; I’m a homemaker,” we hung our heads and m uttered an apology about being “just a housewife.” Titus 2:5 calls the woman a worker at home. We have been so busy
emphasizing the “at home,” that we have forgotten to emphasize “worker.” No, we do not punch a time clock, but that makes it more difficult, not less. We have to make ourselves take the time and do the work. We are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week—no holidays.
It takes as many hours to stretch a dollar (gardening, canning, sewing,
coupon clipping, comparison shopping, baking from scratch) as it does to earn
one. It takes more time to read and discuss a Bible story that it does to plop a child in front of a television set. It takes extra time to read up on humanism and monitor our children’s schoolwork for its insidious signs; then it takes old-fashioned nerve to speak up about it. It takes more self-discipline and creativity to be a homemaker than any other career in the world!
But it is a most rewarding calling if it is handled as God intended. When one truly produces a home, people notice, not just because the housework is done, but because the atmosphere of the home is carried everywhere with the family members. A haven, peaceful and secure—the place you run to not from—that is a home.
The fruitful vine lives to produce. She is never resentful or regretful. When we do as Titus 2:4 says and learn to love our husbands (not just “fall” in love) and to love our children, the homes we produce for them will show our love because all the work we do is for them. The fruitful vine asks nothing in return from those who pick her grapes. Because the fruit is so plenteous and good, her loved ones shower her with care and attention.
What kind of fruit are you producing, ladies? Is it scarce? Tough? Undersized? Seedy? Sour? Does it come like a fortune cookie with a little message inside: “(Sigh) and after all I’ve done for you….”
It takes extra effort to be a fruitful vine. Let’s get to work and change our image to what it used to be.
Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates,” Prov 31:31.
Dene Ward
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