Sunday, February 12, 2012

passionate, joyful homemaking: what to do if you want to stay at home but your husband wants you to work?

some moms are in a situation where they truly want to work at keeping the home, but their husbands want them to work outside of the home.  what can they do in that case?
most importantly, pray about the situation.  pray for your husband’s heart to change.  pray for God to give you wisdom in how to address it.  pray that God would mercifully allow you to be a homeward focused mom.
after bathing it in prayer, talk about it with him.  show him the reasons you would think it is better for the family and for him for you to stay at home.  show him from the bible why you have this conviction.
address his concerns. most likely his reservation comes down to money.  show him how you could adjust your budget to make it possible.  be willing to sacrifice from your side of the budget, such as your clothes money, eating out, entertainment, etc.
if he is a christian, get your pastor involved.  it is always important to have a godly mediator in any dispute that comes to an impasse, but most especially a disagreement as big as this.  sometimes men respond better to other men than their wives.  hopefully, your pastor also has the biblical view that women should be homeward focused.
if your husband is not a christian, your next step is not clear cut.  pray about it and seek advice from wise other people in your life.  it could be that you should submit to him in order to be a godly example to him (1 Peter 1:3), but it could be that staying at home is a call from a higher authority (God) than your husband.  you may still benefit from a mediator, though your husband may want someone “neutral” like a family and marriage counselor, rather than a pastor. 
as a side note, this is one of the many reasons not to marry someone with a different heart faith.

also, avoid little boy larries like the plague:



go on to part six...

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