As Goes the Home

    In the 1960s the ladies in our congregation attended the Associated Sewing Circle meetings held semi-annually. Women from the Lancaster Conference churches in the surrounding counties met in Lancaster County for these meetings. We would hear what was being done in the sewing circles and what the needs were in home and foreign missions. Inspirational talks and reports from various missions were given. I remember looking forward to these meetings because my pen pal from Adams County was usually there. I don't remember when the organization dissolved but I do remember attendance declined until it wasn't worth having the meetings anymore.

    After I was married, I attended the Homebuilders meetings, also under the Lancaster Conference. The purpose of  Homebuilders was to encourage women in their careers as wives and mothers. I attended these inspirational meetings until we left Lancaster Conference for a more conservative group. 

    During the time I did volunteer work at the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, I was given the job of making a chart of all the organizations for women from 1975 to 1999. There were groups for Literature, Nursing,  Jr. Girls Activities, and others. The Jr. Girls Activities was consistent all the way through but other groups changed over the years. Some died out and new ones were started.

   It was interesting to see the year Homebuilders was dropped it was replaced with Business and Professional Women. It was soon followed by Credentialed Women and then Women in Leadership. The reason the Associated Sewing Circle and Homebuilders were dropped is rather obvious. Women went to work and were not homemakers or sewing anymore. They were too busy building careers to attend meetings for things that did not have priority in their lives.

     The world considers women working as normal and being a homemaker is an unfulfilled life. I beg to differ! Being a homemaker is the most fulfilling career a woman can have. God designed women to be nurturers and men to be leaders and protectors of women. Many of the problems in marriages today are caused by women who have stepped out of their place in God's order. Women who try to work full time and raise a family find the load is too heavy and they are spread too thin. A woman's place is in the home. A mother who puts her child in day care misses so much of their formative years that pass so quickly.

      I am thankful my daughter and all my daughters-in-law chose to be stay at home mothers. This does not mean they cannot do anything except cook and clean. There are many things women can do at home to earn a little money or help others, but the children need to know that Mom will be there to send them off to school and there when they come home. They will eat a home cooked meal and eat at the table as a family. They will read the Bible and pray together. Building a good home is a lot of work and cannot be done as a side job. 

     Look at the church today. Has replacing Homebuilders with Business and Professional Women improved our families, churches, or the world in which live?  "As goes the home, so goes the church, and so goes the nation."