“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” I am bone-weary of seeing that bumper sticker. I see it on the same car, everyday, on my way to the job I wish I could leave open for someone else. I don’t want to conquer, or roar, or make history. Why do I have to make my mark on the world? I want to make a home. I desperately long to make beds, make breakfast, lunch and dinner, make pies and bread, make my own soaps, cleansers, medicines and home decorations. Someday I would love to make our clothes. I want to make my husband happy, and make God the center of our lives. But history? I’m not interested.
I’m too tired at the end of every work day to attempt a fraction of that list, by the way. Just accomplishing the basics is enough, with the sputtering energy I have left over after my frenetic job and long commute. Working out in the world just isn’t for me. There are wonderful women out there doing amazing things professionally, politically, and so forth. I don’t presume that all women need to be at home, making soap and pie. But I do believe that many, many more women deserve to have the chance to stay home, and would be of better help to themselves, their families, their marriages and their communities by doing so. There are women called by God to serve the world in the big leagues, but it’s good to remember that charity, and nearly everything else, begins at home. “Well-behaved” married Christian women like me, who are not very accomplished in the world’s view, have the quiet power and humble calling to accomplish great things for God. I can recreate heaven on earth in my very own home. Multiply that by hundreds- imagine hundreds of little havens of love, safety, peace and beauty in every community- and surely the world can change. A blessed home changes us from the inside out, one well-fed, well-rested and well-loved person at a time.
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