Welcome back to the journey of exploring homemaking mindsets! This is where we stop and think about what goes into homemaking and how we should prepare our minds before we do any homemaking stuff.
Yes, it is important to get stuff done, but it is just as important if not more to be intentional about what we are doing. That is what PART 1 discussed and if you missed it, you should go back and read it.
In this second part of homemaking mindsets, we are looking at homemaking mindsets for the virtuous homemaker. These are three mindsets that have helped me be a more virtuous homemaker.
Love the Old Fashioned Ways
When I say virtuous, I am talking about having character, but there is more to virtue than that. Virtue is like a diamond that is multifaceted. It has many sides to it.
There are many ways to look at the word virtuous to help us understand it better.
One of these ways is to define virtue as the fullness of something. To be truly virtuous is to become what we were fully created to be.
As a woman in charge of managing a home, we are called to be homemakers. In some sense we are already homemakers, but there is so much more to being a homemaker than where we are at today. It’s easy to get lost in how to fulfill this calling in the day to day.
Including the old fashioned ways of living has helped me tremendously with this. Yes, I seek out the old fashioned ways of doing things because I think it is fun and romantic, but it actually also provides direction and guidance in my homemaking.
As a woman who grew up outside of American culture, I feel like I am starting from scratch when it comes to learning how I should dress, how I should decorate our home, how I should cook, how I should live seasonally… Maybe you feel this, too.
Perhaps, a lot of things are new to you, too, as a homemaker. Sometimes when I am faced with something new to learn or do in my home, I feel a little lost. There are so many opinions and lifestyles out there. How do I know which one is the best one for my family?
I find a lot of them lacking in many ways, that is why I have started asking myself, “How did people used to do it? What did people used to use for this? Is this still a sustainable way to live?”
Loving the old fashioned lifestyle has helped me figure out what essentials I need in my home, what I should wear, how I can do dishes efficiently with less stress, how I can create a place where my family and I can flourish into what we are individually called to do.
Pursuing the mindset of an old fashioned life has truly helped me so much.
Embracing Sacrifice
Sacrifice. Is there another word that we as moms and homemakers come to know so well? Ok, maybe the word tired, too, but that literally comes because we sacrifice.
A lot is asked of us in times when we are more than willing to sacrifice, and in times when that is the last thing we want to do. There are many moments where we don’t mind getting up from the dinner table to get something for a family member.
There are also moments where we really just don’t want to. We are hungry and tired and just want to sit down for a few minutes uninterrupted.
Sometimes it is our sleep that we sacrifice for a baby who needs us whether we want to be needed or not. We simply want to have one uninterrupted good night’s sleep.
Yet…the call to sacrifice comes. It is definitely hard to keep sacrificing over and over again. We often see these moments as interruptions in our life and homemaking tasks.
But are they interruptions? Or are they perhaps moments when Jesus is calling us to sacrifice just as he sacrificed for us?
Are they interruptions or are they moments where we can become more virtuous?
Having this in mind, it makes those “interruptive” moments a lot easier. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather have the chance to be virtuous than to be interrupted. The situation hasn’t changed, only how we view it has shifted.
RELATED POST: 12 Qualities of a Virtuous Woman
Accepting the Cyclical Nature of Life
Do you ever have something unvirtuous that is reoccurring? There are many things we as moms and simply women in general struggle with constantly. We each have our own things that we deal with that we simply wish we could overcome and never struggle with again.
Perhaps life is not like that though…
There seems to be a great a deal of cycling in life. We have the annual seasons that come back around every year. The day starts, it ends, and then another day starts… The months do this, too, as well as the years.
There is also the fact that we get hungry, eat, and then the hunger comes back again.
A lot of life is built around things that cycle back around again and again.
Perhaps, virtue is like that, too. Possibly, the recurring thing which we struggle with is permitted to come back around again so that with each new encounter we are given an opportunity to grow deeper in virtue in that area.
Many times, I know I am tempted to have guilty thoughts when something cycles back around again. I think to myself, “Why am I still struggling with this? I thought it was conquered. Why is it back again?”
Instead of thinking that I have done something wrong or that I don’t know how to deal with this, this shift has given me so much peace knowing that maybe God sends things back around again so that we can keep growing in that area. Each time is an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding, to surrender a little more, and to learn more about the goodness of God.
Final Thoughts!
Thank you for reading all the way down here! I know this was a lot of different information. These are three shifts in the way I view life that has really changed my homemaking.
If they didn’t apply to you now, I hope you will tuck them away. You may need them later.
If you liked this and haven’t read it yet, head over and read PART 1 for some more homemaking mindsets that will help you in your own homemaking journey.
MORE ON HOMEMAKING!
Homemaking Mindsets for Intentional Homemakers
Old Fashioned Homemaking Skills
