# Stay at Home SISTER TO SISTER Language: en Author: Elizabeth Rust Lititz, PA Original issue: The Heartbeat of The Remnant, Fall 2020, Number 3 Source pages: 32–33 Read article: Original PDF: Fall\-2020\-Remnant\.pdf [The Heartbeat of The Remnant, Fall 2020]() ***Stay at home,*** our government has been saying to us recently in light of the Coronavirus pandemic\. Long before this, though, another Government—a higher Government—told us ladies to “stay at home\.” Not in order to prevent the spread of disease, but rather in order to help the spread of the Gospel\. But how can staying at home possibly spread the Gospel? Let us consider what happens when we spend the majority of our time at home, on a practical level, as well as on a spiritual level\. In Titus 2:5, it says that one of the things the aged women are to teach the younger women is to be ***keepers at home\.*** A *home\-keeper* is a woman who will be found in her home more often than not, one who is taking her role as a home\-manager seriously\. She is one who sees her tasks as a way to serve the Lord and not as an irksome duty to be endured\. Most often, being a *keeper at home* applies to a married woman, usually with children\. She will have meals to plan and prepare; clothes to wash, mend, and store; rooms to tidy up and clean; children to watch over bodily, spiritually, and emotionally; and a husband to please and serve, among other things\. Very few of these things can be done outside of the physical house, so in order for them to be accomplished, by necessity, she must be at home\. A married woman is first and foremost a helpmeet to her husband\. She is truly helping her husband by being mentally and physically active in keeping their home\. As a result, her husband will have good food to nourish his body, clean and decent clothing to cover him, a tidy house to spend his time in, and a companion to spend his time with\. Thus, on a regular basis, he will not need to do these things for himself and his family\. This allows him to be available for other work, including working for the Lord\. If she is a mother, keeping the home also includes children\. Children who grow up in a godly home with a loving mother who provides nourishing meals, clean clothes, a tidy house, and a peaceful atmosphere will have front row seats to learn from a woman who has committed herself to the Lord in the role that He created her for\. They will observe her in many circumstances and will take note of her trust in the Lord, and her faith in His promises of salvation, and His care for her\. They will know the restful feeling of being in a home that is not disrupted by multiple trips out, and that does not run on the adrenaline of rushing about\. ![Glass terrarium and pine cones on a wood slice in a living room]() Ultimately, they will be the recipient of her decision of giving her energies to her home and those who dwell in it\. If she has poured her life into them for the sake of serving the Lord in that capacity, they should feel loved and well\-cared for\. Children who feel loved and well\-cared for by a godly mother are more likely to be receptive to the Gospel she has been proclaiming to them all through the years\. Then, when they accept the Lord’s forgiveness and begin living for the Lord in the Spirit of Christ, they will have a similar desire to share that Gospel with others\. By God’s grace, she will then have multiplied the number of soldiers who are working to advance the Kingdom of God\. That is how *keeping at home* spreads the Gospel—by ministering to her husband, making him available to the Lord, and by ministering to her children, preparing them to be available to the Lord\. Any woman who is *home\-keeping* need not leave her home to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a lost world\. From her own home she can show hospitality, she can encourage others, she can pray for many, and she can study God’s Word to equip her for anything that she will face\. There are many obstacles that stand in the way of a woman staying at home to perform this monumental task\. Often, they come in the form of invitations\. “Can you come over for the day?” “Do you want to help at the comfort\-knotting?” “Could you be a part of our book group?” “There’s a sale on fabric and shoes, do you want to go shopping with me?” Spending time with others, helping knot comforters and similar activities, and getting deals at stores are not wicked things, but when you accept too many invitations, it takes you out of your home and divides your attention\. How many invitations do you think the Apostle Paul had to speak in various cities? A handful? More like a lifetime full\! And what do you think he did with all those invitations—do you think he accepted every single one of them? Paul had to be careful in choosing where he went and how often he went\. What Paul did when he could not be in two places at once was to send a letter to those he could not physically be present with\. You may find it helpful, and possibly even enjoyable, to take a leaf out of Paul’s book and drop someone an old\-fashioned letter or card to let them know you are thinking of them or to encourage them in their faith, especially if you need to decline their invitation\. And that does not even take you out of your home—you can do it from your very own kitchen table\! If you are having trouble with being over\-stretched with outings, you may want to consider looking at your entire week and limiting your time away from the home\. That way, when you receive invitations you can evaluate whether your week is full instead of just considering that particular day\. You need not be embarrassed to say “no” when you are doing so to give yourself fully to being a *keeper at home\.* In addition to receiving invitations, which is another pressure that *keepers at home* face—the desire of wanting to get out and socialize\. “Gadding about” is how it used to be referred to, and a *keeper at home* needs to monitor how often she leaves the house just to socialize\. This pressure can also come in the form of using social media, where a mother is physically present in the house, but emotionally absent from her home and family\. A word for daughters whose mothers are *keeping the home:* “Think twice before seeking a job outside the home\.” It is becoming increasingly normal for our young girls to get jobs at stores, restaurants, greenhouses, or nursing homes during their youth years\. I have no doubt that there may be opportunities to be a witness for the Lord, but a young girl who puts her energy into learning the finesse of *keeping a home* by serving in her mother’s home or in another church mother’s home, will be well prepared for life\. Lending a capable set of hands is setting herself up for successfully *keeping her own home* one day\. She will be conditioning herself for the days when her to\-do list doesn’t look grand and glorious, but rather consists of daily changing pampers, kissing bruises, and putting three meals on the table\. A young girl who is helping others, such as her own mother or other church mothers, will learn cheerfulness and contentment in doing a thankless job—one that will need to be redone again in a few hours—ALL for God’s glory\. However, one who works outside the home may condition herself to expect to find her fulfillment by getting out of the house and doing other things\. Being a *keeper at home* does not mean just going through the duties, but also doing them with a good will and a right spirit so that the home is restful and not clouded by grouchiness\. Having clean plates with delicious food on them doesn’t mean much to anyone if they are served with irritation, bitterness, or anger\. We need to be happy about being a *keeper at home\.* “Stay at home” we’ve been told\. Will we heed these words? If our home is our ministry, may we be found there more often than anywhere else, for the sake of spreading the Gospel and advancing the Kingdom of God\. ## Magazine citation - [Glass terrarium and pine cones on a wood slice in a living room](): unslpash\.com