Welcome to Day #11 of the 31 Days to Professional Homemaking series. To learn more about this series and to see the list of topics, click HERE. Please know that I am not an expert in marriage, motherhood, or homemaking. I'm just a woman {who happens to be a wife, mother, and homemaker}, trying to figure it all out, by the grace of God. This series is just as much for me as it is for anyone reading.
Before we get started, I'd like to offer you the following button, in case you want to share this series with your readers:
I’m sure many of you have heard about mission statements
{if you've been keeping up with the challenges, you made one for your family on Day 5}. In
the business world, a mission statement clearly defines the ultimate goal of
the company; what they are hoping to achieve.
Ideally, it would be something that would cause customers to trust in
the company, as well as provide motivation and a sense of purpose to its
employees.
This practice of declaring a mission statement can easily
translate to your job as a homemaker. After
all, without knowing what your ultimate goal is, you’re more likely to find
yourself overwhelmed and discouraged when, at day’s end, there’s doesn’t seem
to be much to show for the past twelve hours.
Conversely, a clearly defined outcome can keep you going on even the
toughest of days.
But, as you can probably tell from the title of this section,
I don’t suggest that you merely stop at writing a mission statement. In fact, I recommend that you write a
full-blown manifesto that will serve as a constant source of inspiration to get
you through the seemingly mundane and downright difficult times. The great thing about a manifesto is that it
is something you can read at the start of everyday that will remind you of the
bigger picture that is at work.
What is a
Manifesto?
At its most basic level, a manifesto is a series of
statements that connect your beliefs to your actions. In it, you are declaring what is important to
you and what you’re going to do about it.
A basic example is:
Because spending quality time with my family is important to me, I will
limit my computer time to those times in which my children are asleep and my
husband is not home.
How to
Write a Manifesto?
Step #1 – Pray
As Christians, we are supposed to be living our lives in accordance
with the Bible. Likewise, the idea behind creating a manifesto is
that I will focus on what I am supposed to be doing as a homemaker, in light of
biblical truth. But before I can expect
to know what it is I’m supposed to be focusing on, I need to pray and ask the
Lord what areas He would have me to focus my attention, time, and efforts.
Step #2 – Determine
Your Topics
After you say a prayer, asking God for the wisdom you need to
tackle your manifesto, it’s time to sit down and jot down those key areas that you
feel the Lord leading you to focus on. Luckily, if you completed your challenges on Day 9 and Day 10, you already have your list of responsibilities, expectations, and ways to be a better steward of those areas.
For
me, the areas are:
Faith {My walk with God}
Health {Taking care of my body}
Marriage {Being a godly wife}
Parenting {Being a godly mother; I, personally, include homeschooling here.}
Homemaking {Doing it all to the glory of God}
Hospitality/Ministry {Blessing others and sharing the gospel}
General Stewardship {Being a wise caretaker of all that I have been given}
Blog/Writing {Using the written word to minister to others}
Now, obviously, this list does not
necessarily include everything going on in my life right now, but it does cover
the vast majority of it. So, what
happens if I need to add another category later on down the road? Well, that’s the beauty of a manifesto: it
can {and should} change from time to time.
The manifesto that I have right
now, with an almost-four year old son at home, will look vastly different than
the one I’ll have ten years from now when Little Man is a teenager and, Lord willing, there are more kids entrusted to my care. A woman who is unmarried with no
children will have a different manifesto than a woman who has three grown children
and six grandchildren. And that’s
okay! Your manifesto should compliment
your season of life.
So, with that in mind, I'd like for you to go ahead and grab your list of responsibilities, expectations,and stewardship ideas. If you haven't done this yet {or you're just now joining us}, you could copy the list above and simply
tweak to your needs, or go ahead and come up with something that is completely customized to you, your family, and your lifestyle.
Step #3 – Write Down Belief Statements
Once you have your list, write down
what your beliefs are about each category. As a Christian, this is the part where I get
in God’s Word to figure out what He has to say about each area of my life. I write down those things that I am commanded
to do, as well as the kind of characteristics that I am supposed to
exemplify.
Admittedly, this step will take some time. What you may want to do is to look into one category/responsibility each morning during your Bible study. In other words, instead of doing a Bible study curriculum or reading wherever your Bible happens to open to, why not focus on one area of your life at a time. Find out what God's expectations are in each area.
Do your expectations line up with God's expectations? If not, guess which ones need to change... Yeah, yours {and mine}. As you go through each category, learning what God has to say about it, and you find that your expectations differ from His, go ahead and alter yours. You'll need the correct expectations before going any further...
Once your expectations and God's expectations are complimentary, you can then move on to the next step...
Step #4 – Write Down Action Statements
After you have identified your standard {God's expectations} concerning each category, you’ll then want to think about how those beliefs will translate into your everyday life. Because, whether you realize it or not your beliefs WILL come out in your actions. It’s just better to become intentional about
making sure that your actions line up with what you say you believe.
These action statements, much like the ones you created for your Family Mission Statement, will serve as the steps you're going to take to make sure that your actions line up with your beliefs. But, whereas the Family Mission Statement serves to keep your entire family on the same page, your "Homemaking Manifesto" serves to keep you on track. It's a detailed outline of how you're going to do your part to achieve the family mission.
{Side note: if you have a husband who is willing and children who are old enough to do so, you may want to encourage everyone to create his or her own manifesto. Your husband might make a "Spiritual Leader/Provider Manifesto" and your children - probably middle school age or older - could call theirs: "{Child's Name}'s Manifesto". It's a great exercise for getting everyone to think about how their beliefs should impact their actions and how exactly they plan on contributing to the overall goal of the family.}
Example:
In order to better understand this process, please allow me to give you a personal example of how everything we've learned so far comes into play when writing a "Homemaking Manifesto". For example's sake, I'm going to walk you through just one area of my life: home management. Specifically, cleaning and household chores.
My job description for this area looks something like this:
Chores - I am responsible for the majority of the chores, simply because I am home more hours out of the day than my husband. My husband is responsible for taking out the trash {most of the time}, yard work, vehicle maintenance, and home maintenance {plumbing, electrical, etc}. Everything else falls under my list of responsibilities: laundry, dishes, and general cleaning {sweeping/mopping/vacuuming floors, bathrooms, dusting...}.
The expectation that my husband and I have established for our home is that it should be "clean enough to be healthy, but messy enough to be happy", although I will go above and beyond this standard if company is coming {not for the sake of impressing them, but for their sake - a cleaner-than-usual home shows them that I took the time to prepare for their arrival}. In general, though, this means that the laundry shouldn't fall more than a day behind {if it would take me more than a day to wash/dry/fold/put away clothes, then I'm too far behind and need to catch up}, sink should be clean every night {dishes should be done every night}, bathrooms should be deep-cleaned at least once a week, and the house should stay reasonably picked up {nightly whole house pick up helps with this}. And, that's pretty much it.
As for Biblical standards of cleanliness, God doesn't simply tell us how clean our homes should be, nor does he do regular white glove inspections. So, how do I know if my standards line up? Well, I know that God values relationships more than chores.
How do I know that? Well, for one reason, there's the story of Mary and Martha. Martha was busy in the kitchen, while Mary sat and Jesus feet and listened. However, Martha translated Mary's actions as laziness and asked Jesus to tell her to get in the kitchen and help! But, Jesus told Martha that he would not scold Mary for choosing what was most important. Likewise, neither should I. If I ever get to a point where I'm spending my days cleaning instead of with the Lord or with my family, something is terribly wrong.
How do I know that? Well, for one reason, there's the story of Mary and Martha. Martha was busy in the kitchen, while Mary sat and Jesus feet and listened. However, Martha translated Mary's actions as laziness and asked Jesus to tell her to get in the kitchen and help! But, Jesus told Martha that he would not scold Mary for choosing what was most important. Likewise, neither should I. If I ever get to a point where I'm spending my days cleaning instead of with the Lord or with my family, something is terribly wrong.
So, this entry in my manifesto may look something like this:
Because homemaking is more about relationships than keeping house, the expectation for our home is that it is "clean enough to be healthy, but messy enough to be happy". I will ensure this happens by keeping the laundry going; maintaining a nightly, clean, dish-free sink; deep-cleaning our bathrooms at least once a week; and making sure the house is reasonably picked up every night.
Today's Challenge:
Each day, I'll give you a challenge: one small thing you can do to apply each day's topic to your life and your home.
A Homemaking Manifesto, in my opinion, serves and your personal handbook. In the same way that jobs typically have policies and procedures for the purpose of communicating what is expected, a homemaking manifesto serves the same purpose for you. It's a policies and procedures "manual" for how you're going to run your home.
1. Write out your own homemaking manifesto. Again, this may not get done all in one day, and that's okay. Just let it be something that you continue to work on for the rest of this series. {That gives you twenty more days to complete it!} Keep in mind that there is no rule concerning how long this manifesto needs to be. Some of you will write shorter ones, while others may have several pages worth of information. Really, the size will probably line up with the number of responsibilities you have.
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