When I was in my early thirties, I wanted to teach women. The opportunity never happened. As I have become older, I look back and realize that I did not really know that much anyway. Now, I am seventy two and still have a lot to learn! But I decided to make this page to encourage other women in their walk with God. Whether you are a housewife as your career choice or are juggling two careers, I hope this site can encourage you. As wives and mothers, we are all keepers at home. I hope every woman will be blessed as they read items on this page. God bless you. bja

Hearing my babies’ first words – Helping with their first steps – Enduring the agony as well as enjoying the thrill of them cutting teeth. – Listening to their stories. – Stopping their arguments – Drying their tears and sharing their hugs. – Supporting them during problems ... and victories – Taking time to teach them God’s Word. – Eight and a half years of teaching them at home, both school work and homemaking. Time with my husband, no matter what schedule he worked. – Taking time for each other as well as the children. – One whole year of him coming home for lunch with us. – Family vacations without the conflict of jo schedules. Serving The Lord through various ministries of our church and helping others in need. – Now, time for fulfilling one of my heart’s desires with my writing; hoping to be a witness and blessing to others. I know this may sound like a lot of gifts, but my husband and I made a decision more than thirty years ago, that I would stay home and be a full time housewife. Now that the children are grown and I look back over the years, I know making that choice has been my best gift. bja

The priority list shown below is not original, but is a good one to go by. It has been my guide most of my adult life. # 1 Daily life with Christ - This includes Bible reading and prayer. Keep a journal of your Bible reading. Prayer is your way of talking to God. Take a few seconds or minutes of silence just thinking about God our Creator and Savior. # 2 Husband - Do special things for your husband. Tell him you love him, often. Write little notes to him. Plan special things together. Let him know he is important enough for your undivided attention. # 3 Children - Plan special activities for them, too. Listen to them. Give them your attention. # 4 Personal Care - Take time to care for your body. It is the tabernacle of the Lord. # 5 Household - Be organized, but remember, your house does not have to be spotless. Teach the children to do their part. # 6 Outside Ministry - There are many things you can be involved in, but remember your family comes first. Humbly ask God what he wants you to do for Him. bja

Yes, I work. I have chosen as my career to be a full time housewife. No, I did not say a homemaker. God is the home maker, not me. It takes each family member working together to create a homey atmosphere, but it takes the love of God in our hearts for all these different personalities to blend into a home. This is too big a task for any person to handle. I would not want to take the responsibility or the credit for it.

I am not too fond of the term 'homemaker.' It seems to me that some people who use that term for our career think that to be a housewife is not good enough. The word housewife seems to have taken on a negative connotation. The Bible tells us in I Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” During the years, the devil, through the media, has tried to do this by giving fulltime housewives a bad reputation. The duties of my job are to do all I can to meet my husband’s needs and to keep our house in order. I believe that job description fits the title appropriately. I am a housewife.

Any career can be satisfying if done in the right attitude. The career of a fulltime housewife is no different. A housewife makes sure everything in the home is running in good order. This means doing a good job juggling cooking, cleaning, child care, nursing, secretarial work, gardening, chauffeuring, etc. She tries to be something special to each of the family members by listening and being aware of individual needs.

It takes faith to stay home and live on one income when the world tells you it cannot be done. Full-time housewives, sometimes, give up many things to stay home. But, God in His love gives us the things we really need. As Paul tells us in Philippians 4:19 “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

Sometimes women say they would like to stay home but they are afraid they would be bored. Boredom comes with any career choice, whether you are filing, typing, or cleaning. With all the variety of jobs a housewife has to do though, there should not be any time for boredom. She does need however, just as any career person, to have her priorities in order.

Each woman needs to accept and support each other for the career choices that they have made. In Hebrews 10:25b Paul tells us …“but exhorting another and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Housewives need to be supportive of those who have chosen to have a career outside the home, just as others need to be supportive of housewives.

Don’t let Satan win in your life by making you feel as though you must have a career outside the home. I thank God that he has enabled me to be a housewife for the past fifty-three years. We have had many special blessings and memories we would not have if I worked outside the home. Being a housewife is a great career choice. Yes, God is the one who makes a house a home and I am very proud to be a housewife.

As I observe parents interacting with their children and as I read parenting magazines I see much about making sure you do not hurt the self-esteem of your child. Whether it be making mealtime pleasant or giving them time-out for discipline instead of yelling at them.

Recently, I was behind a family along the bike path. The mother was in front pushing a stroller. The father was in back of the stroller with another child with him. The toddler was pushing a push toy and it kept going off the walk or into other people along the path. Dad was trying to have patience and asking the child to please be more careful, but you could tell the father was becoming irritated and trying hard to maintain his temper. Finally, the child asked him to help with the toy. Applying psychology, he said "So, you want me to push it some now?" as though it was the best news of the day. But, to all those people who had to move out of the way, the child had been rude and got away with it.

I could not help but think what happened to the days when parents could take over when they saw the child making mistakes or doing wrong by correcting them. I do not mean we can't be nice to our children, but what ever happened to "Because I said so." Now you have to explain it out just why you want them to obey you, or even beg them to obey you. If we would get back to the way my parents did it and just have our children obey because we tell them to, then maybe there would not be so much confusion in families.

Children need to learn who is in authority and quickly obey when told to do something. I never accepted the idea of even counting the three. My husband and I wanted our children to obey when we told them, not after two more chances. If they were running into the street, we figured we did not have time to count to three. They needed to stop when we said so.

I was raised in 'children are to be seen and not heard' time period. I do not believe we should go back to that extreme, but God teaches us to teach our children obedience. And delayed obedience is disobedience. We wanted them to obey just because we said so without asking 'why' and having a long discussion first. We figured we could explain things to them afterwards - after they were safe or had not been rude to people, or ….

When our first child was a toddler. We had taught her to obey the first time we told her to do something. One day I was at the church door after services and the preacher wanted to ask me a question. She was in front of me and had headed down the sidewalk. I told her to stop. She stopped. The preacher looked on in amazement that she had stopped and was waiting quietly for me to finish talking. I did not think much about my part in it but was proud of her.

I see parents today who are so embarrassed by the way their child is acting, but at a complete loss for what to do about the situation. The children are in control, and they know it. I understand that over the past thirty years, parents have become fearful that they will be punished or the children taken away from them if they punish them in any physical way, but somehow there has to be a way for parents to accept the role of being the one in authority in their home. There are many good books to read and seminars to go to that teach these principles. Learn from them and then maybe when a child asks "Why?" You can say "Because I said so."