How to Glorify God With Your Home

When my husband and I were going through pre-marital counseling, I remember our pastor talking to me about my future home. She gave me advice about my unique role as a cultivator of my home and I felt all kinds of negativity and resistance toward any of this advice.

Though, looking back I do love the word she used: Cultivator.

I even went so far as to tell her (yes, her) that I wouldn’t be “that kind of woman.”

I was fairly new in my faith during this season and very immature in this regard. I didn’t grow up in a Christian home and had a very negative view of women who described themselves as “homemakers” or “stay at home moms.”

If I had been a little less prideful and stubborn during this season of my life, I may have listened to her and taken what she had to say to heart. I may have realized this advice was coming from a female Pastor who jetted all over the world doing missions work and previously worked full-time at various churches. I may have leaned in and learned that she was talking about something more than just laundry and dishes and cooking.

I had it in my head that strong women worked and contributed outside of their home and that things like laundry, dishes, cooking, decorating and organization were trivial tasks. They were low on my priority list.

I had more important things to do with my time.

I placed very little value on the home I was about to be in charge of, in partnership with my husband. To be truthful, neither of us knew how to navigate this new territory.

We stumbled around it for many years and have only just now begun to figure it out.

Glorifying God with your home is not about Pinterest-worthy organization or decor.

It is not about having the latest home furnishings or the perfect farmhouse aesthetic or a house so clean it looks like no one lives there.

Your home is a blessing and you are the steward of that blessing, just like any other good thing given to you from Heaven (James 1:17). Glorifying God with your home is about your attitude towards it.

When we are grateful for something, how do we show it? By caring for it and treating it well. The same goes for your home.

This Biblical principle is not about whether you work or not, or whether you’ve stayed home with your children or not. Much of the Scriptures used to say that women who are home full-time are more Godly than others are often taught out of context.

Personal conviction is not absolute truth.

For example, a common Scripture used to teach that women are meant to only be at home is 1 Timothy 5:14 in which Paul states,

“So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.”

I have seen this one verse used as the basis for many teachings without proper context.

The context for this verse is Paul addressing the church at Ephesus on how to handle the support of widows in their congregation. And even more broadly, 1 Timothy is a letter written to the young leader Timothy by Paul to correct the false teaching and disciplines at the church in Ephesus.

In the historical context, widows were cared for by the Church in exchange for committed service, but Paul is saying that women who are still young and able to marry should do that instead of being supported by the Church or giving into idleness and gossip.

As verses 11-12 state, younger widows would likely have the desire eventually to marry and would be condemned for leaving their commitment to the church. (1Timothy 5:11-12)

Marriage and household management is how women of that day were able to be cared for because they could not hold titles or land or own property.

Their options were marriage or squalor. This is not the case today.

At the time that the Bible was written, a woman’s home was her place of work. Many of those women in the Bible were also businesswomen (see the Proverbs 31 woman.) Her only option was to be married and manage a home.

Now, some women’s only options are to work outside the home. Some with multiple jobs.

A home is to be managed and cared for and God is to be glorified with it, just like anything else God has given us. We’re called to care for and tend to the blessings God has placed in our lives. (1 Peter 4:10) That includes our homes, our children, our marriages or family relationships, and our careers, should we work outside the home.

How that is done is between you, God, and your husband, if you are married.

If you are married, your home is a partnership.

Someone has to cook. Someone has to clean. Someone has to pay the bills and procure the supplies needed to run a home.

For most couples, the person best suited for those jobs is the wife, but not always. The person often best suited to earn the main income for a home is the husband, but not always. And this can change with seasons.

For example, my husband was in Seminary for 4 years, and for the large majority of that time, I worked full-time and he worked part-time and went to school. Now that he has graduated, He is working full-time, and I am part-time.

Some women marry men who are gourmet chefs or incredible organizers or who have an eye for design.

Managing your home might look like you outsourcing some of the work to be done by others to provide employment, such as cleaning, grocery buying, nannying, cooking, lawn care or even decorating. Just because something needs to be done, doesn’t mean it physically has to be done by you or your spouse.

Everyone has been given different giftings and comes into their new homes with different perspectives and expectations. It’s important that this is tackled so that God is glorified and each person in a family is given the opportunity to exercise those gifts according to Scripture and conviction.

Glorifying God with your home is less about what specific tasks you do within it and more about how you do them.

Do you do them as unto the Lord? Do you do them with joy and thanksgiving? Do you open your home to serve others, no matter what it looks like? Do you cultivate an atmosphere of warmth and love to minister to those who are in it?

Glorying God with your home is about your heart.

Do you approach managing your heart with a posture of worship? Do you view any tasks you’ve agreed are your responsibility with gratitude?

For many of us, this is difficult and our pride can hinder us from truly serving our families and worshipping God through mundane tasks.

I don’t currently have children and I work outside my home, while also running this blog and small business. However, my personal conviction is to be at home with my kids when God blesses us with them until they are older.

I have a strong desire to be there during the little years. However, there are many circumstances that don’t allow some to do this and there is no shame in this.

Our personal convictions come from a personal relationship with our Savior. He will lead and guide us to do what is best for our families.

Sometimes His provision will look like jobs for both spouses and other times it will look like making ends meet so one can be with their children.

What matters is that our choices come from a place of reverence for what the Lord would have us do and a knowledge of Scripture and posture of obedience, no matter what that looks like for you and your family.

So, how do we accomplish building a Christ-centered home?

Allyson from The Mundane Moments shares with us a beautiful post about this exact subject. In this featured post, she shares Scriptures we can build our homes on and focuses our hearts on Jesus as the foundation.

How to Build a Christ-Centered Home Full of Love and Truth

Creating a house characterized by love, truth, peace, and joy is one of my foremost goals as a Christian woman. I want to leave a legacy of faith, and I want my children to remember their childhood as one established in a Christ-centered home. They may be young, but I must be purposeful right now if we are to begin building faith at home.

Proverbs 24:3-4 – By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.