Being a Stay-at-Home Daughter Means:
Doing laundry. Lots of laundry. In fact, doing more laundry than you thought 4 people could generate.
Sometimes trying to help with the cooking. Even if it does take you twice as long as your mother, and you make even a bigger mess than your father.
Cleaning: Vacuuming, polishing, and dusting. And trying not to break anything in the process.
Driving your brother around when your parents can't.
Spending time writing that story that you just know will be a national bestseller someday. ;)
Teaching lots of piano lessons. And realizing the interesting ways God answers your prayers for patience.
Babysitting & nannying for church families. Getting invaluable experience for when the kids you spend time with are your own. : )
Playing the piano for an hour at a time...just because you can and you love it.
Getting to know Jesus more and more every day.
Realizing that God's plan and timing are PERFECT.
Making new friends and cherishing old ones.
Realizing that no family is perfect, not even yours, but yours is pretty amazing anyway.
Diving deeper into God's word.
Communicating with God daily through prayer.
Realizing that as great as your dreams and plans are, it's not about you. It's about bringing glory to God.
I’m an unsolicited drive-by commenter on your blog. I saw a link to your college post but thought this one looked like it needed some comments of its own.
ReplyDeleteLet me start by saying I know where you’re coming from. I too came from a homeschooling family. I too avoided traditional college. I finally courted, and married, and now am the homeschooling mother of four.
I acknowledge that college is not always a cost-effective option. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with living with your parents—hey, in this economy, it’s the alternative that’s more unusual.
But I do want to encourage you to make the most of the time you have now. Your life does not begin when you marry. It’s happening now. You are not incomplete without a husband. You are a whole person, exactly who God made you to be. What you are doing now is not just something to fill time; it’s something that matters.
Make the most of it.
It’s great to have your own business, if that’s what you can do. Treat it like a business. Learn to market. Learn to keep your own books. Learn to make real money. Look at the Proverbs 31 woman—she didn’t just sit around waiting for opportunities to come her way. She went out and found them.
Learn to handle the real world. By yourself. Someday your husband will need someone he can trust to make wise decisions when he’s not available.
Learn who you are. It can be hard in a close family. Learn what your passions are, what motivates you, what you love and hate, what you agree with and disagree with. Learn what God’s calling for you is, personally. If someone truly loves you, he’ll love you for yourself, not as an accessory to his own ambitions.
Read hard books. Read books you disagree with. Talk to people. Become friends with people you disagree with. Listen to them. Keep learning. Find a study group, a book club, a writer’s group—somewhere you will get feedback and challenge.
If you hope to teach your own children someday, you need every scrap of education you can get. And brains, like muscles, only grow with resistance.
Speaking of muscles, get strong. The Proverbs 31 woman did. It’s easy to take health for granted when you’re young, but childbearing is incredibly demanding. Build up your body now. Learn sports you can enjoy with your husband and children. Work out.
Be someone who can smile at the future because whatever life throws out at you—and there will be more curve balls than you can imagine yet—you have the skills and courage to face it.
Thank you for this wonderful post and your wise advice! I sincerely appreciate it! :)
ReplyDelete