Thankful Homemaker: A Christian Homemaking Podcast

EP 38: Marriage Series #5 - What Does Submission in Marriage Look Like?

We are continuing in our marriage series on the podcast, and this is the second half of the episode on submission. If you didn't get a chance to listen to the first one where my husband joined us you can do that here. I highly recommend it before listening in to this one.
My husband shared last week on the theology of submission, and I'm continuing on today on what submission in marriage is and what it isn't.
When we are living out the beautiful doctrine of submission the unbelieving world around us will take notice. They will see wives respecting and loving their husbands.  Peace and joy in our homes.  Wives who talk about their husbands with honor and respect.  Wives who look to their husbands for guidance and leadership and are true helpers that come alongside them in the advancement of God’s Kingdom.  They will see marriages filled with genuine love and affection.
My hope today in our time together is to give you the practical application in our everyday lives of what submission in marriage looks like and what it doesn’t look like. Please know that when I am sharing with you, it does not mean I have this area of my life mastered.  I am still a learner, and God continues to teach me much.  Let’s pray that with the Lord’s help we can all be more obedient to God’s ways and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior.
For the show notes and resources mentioned head to ThankfulHomemaker.com
 

EP 37: Marriage Series #4 - What is Biblical Submission? (with guest Doug Ferrell)

We're continuing on in our marriage series and podcast episode 37 is part one of a two-part episode in the series on submission. I'm a bit excited to have my husband joining us today and he's going to work through with us what is the theology of submission. You can find all the podcast episodes in the marriage series here. 
We're camping in the text of Ephesians 5:22-24:
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
That’s the Christian wedding text that everybody wants their pastor to use for the ceremony but after the wedding cake, it becomes a real struggle in its application! It is a text often quoted, usually misunderstood and misapplied and creates a lot of unnecessary tension in a marriage. And that is why it is critical for us as married couples who are followers of Jesus, His disciples, to grasp this properly and obey its teachings. And so what we should attempt to accomplish in our short time together is the theology embedded in this principle of submission; that is, what does God mean in His command for wives to submit to their husbands?
For the show notes and scriptures mentioned head to ThankfulHomemaker.com

EP 36: Marriage Series #3 - Showing Respect to Our Husbands

We’re continuing in our series on marriage at the podcast, and episode 36 is on respect.  So far we've covered God's Design for Marriage and Our Role as Women, Loving Our Husbands, and today we're talking about what does it look like to show respect to our husbands.
What is respect? How is it defined? The dictionary defines it - A feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.
We are called by God to respect our husband’s position of headship in the home, and as we do this, we are honoring God first and foremost. God has called them to this position, and He has called us to respect their position.
God has called our husbands, just like us, to be like Christ. One way we do this is by submitting our will and humbling ourselves before the Lord and taking the place of a servant in our homes. Christ is our ultimate example of a loving, respectful servant.
This is only going to come about when we get a right view of who God.  God is worthy of my trust and loyalty and respect and submission (please take a listen to Podcast Ep 31 on The Supremacy of God). This is part of His plan. The apostle Paul started out the verses here in Ephesians 5:22-33 with love and submission and he ends them here in Ephesians 5:33 with love and respect.
For the rest of the show notes and resources mentioned visit ThankfulHomemaker.com
 

EP 35: Marriage Series #2 - To Love Their Husbands

We’re continuing in a series here at the podcast on marriage. Each episode can stand alone, but they are meant to be listened to together. Last week we talked about God’s Design for Marriage and Our Role as Women. We touched briefly on areas of submission, respect, and love. Today we’re going to start by seeing what God’s Word has to say about loving our husbands.
I struggled with titling the episode, so I borrowed it from scripture from Titus 2:4 passage that we are to be taught by the older women “to love their husbands.”
Before we dig into that passage, I want to work through with you on what is love?  Love is a necessary factor in our marriages. If we don’t have love for one another there’s going to be a lot of issues in our marriage. Without love in our marriages they’re going to be difficult to endure, any problems in the marriage will be difficult to overcome, as time goes on when we live in a relationship where there is no love the relationship is going to begin to fall apart. We’re not going to like each other very much or have any desire to be near one another, and it is just a dangerous place to be.
God’s Word is clear on the importance of love in all our relationships and especially in our marriages.
In a most familiar passage - Matthew 22:37-40 states:
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
We stated last week that our husbands are our closest neighbors. When love is talked about, do we understand what it truly is or what it means when God commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves?
We married our spouse because we loved them. Now that we’ve been married a bit we can find ourselves acting very unloving at times or maybe a lot of times and wondering what happened? We can’t exhaustively cover today what real love is, but I do desire to work through on what God’s Word says because He’s given us a clear idea of what real love is in His Word.
For the show notes and resources mentioned head to ThankfulHomemaker.com

EP 34: Marriage Series #1 - God's Design for Marriages and Our Role as Women

I am so grateful to be back at the podcast and excited about this upcoming series on marriage. I've enjoyed my study time for this series and this first one is foundational because it lays out from God's Word His design for marriage and what our role is He has called us to as women.
As we dig in together today if you can sit with a Bible handy that would be a help as we're covering a lot of verses. They are all listed below so you can go back and refer to them later. Genesis 2:18-25 is my main text in understanding God's design for marriage.
My husband is going to join in on the podcasts on submission and I'm looking forward to working together with him on this series. We've been married over 32 years and consider ourselves continual learners in our walk with the Lord and in our marriage. The Lord has grown us in our love for Him and in that, in our love for one another. I have said it before but my Doug makes me want to be more like Jesus.
For the complete show notes and resources mentioned head to ThankfulHomemaker.com
Future Podcasts in this Series: (not official titles yet but it gives you the topics at least)
Loving our Husbands
Respecting Our Husbands
Submission (two-part series)
Communication
Intimacy
Resources:
Homemaking Ministries Conference - Deep Dive Summit
The Creation of Woman- John MacArthur Sermon
The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace
God of Creation by Jen Wilkin
Strengthening Your Marriage by Wayne Mack
ESV Study Bible
John MacArthur Study Bible
Podcast Ep 17:  Cherishing Our Husbands
Podcast: Loving Our Husbands- Women's Hope Podcast
Who Am I by Jerry Bridges
Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney
Love Has a Price Tag by Elisabeth Elliot
A Picture-Perfect Marriage- Tim Challies
For the complete show notes and resources mentioned head to ThankfulHomemaker.com
 
 
 

EP 33: Is Your Smartphone Changing You? (Hiatus Update)

On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about our cell phone use and discuss whether we master our cell phones or do they master us. This podcast was on my mind because of two recent posts at Tim Challies blog on the use of our phones. I recently read the book, 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke and it was a challenging read. 
I’m going to share with you some of what I took from that book to get us started, some thoughts on Tim Challies posting about him going back to a “dumb phone” and as we close today some questions for us to ponder from a quiz Tim Challies posted online called Are You Addicted to Your Phone? At the close, I share some ways I desire to make changes with the use of my phone in my life. 
Also, I have an announcement that I’ll be taking a short hiatus from the podcast but will be back with the regular weekly podcast sometime in early July.I’m working on content currently for the next Homemaking Ministries Conference coming up this fall – it’s my favorite online conference, and I hope you’ll join us again if you have in the past and if you haven’t yet I hope you will. There will be more details to come on it this summer.
I'm working on a series on marriage for the podcast in the future, and I hope to get my husband on the podcast with me so we can do a few together.I’d love you all to “meet” him. I love listening to him and learning from him. The Lord has given him much wisdom and truly being around him makes me want to be more like Jesus, so I’m thankful to get to have him share here with you all.
You can find the show notes and resources mentioned at ThankfulHomemaker.com 
 

EP 32: Preparing Our Families for Sunday Morning Worship

How many times does Sunday morning roll around and you find your heart in a state of chaos instead of calm to worship the Lord?  How many Sunday’s do you arrive at church and realize you haven’t taken the time all week to pray for your pastor or your church family? I want to share with you some simple steps we can take to prepare our hearts and the hearts of our families for Sunday morning worship to the Lord.
The hope today is to get you to understand the purpose and the mission of the local church and then to move on toward how we can proceed with some simple steps to prepare our hearts and the hearts of our families for Sunday morning worship to the Lord.
For the show notes and resources mentioned head to ThankfulHomemaker.com

EP 31: The Supremacy of God

On today’s episode, I’m sharing with you a message that I shared at our church's recent women’s retreat. Our time together at the retreat was spent learning about the attributes of God. I started the weekend off sharing about the Supremacy, Eternality, Self-Sufficiency, and Self-Existence of our most awesome God and I wanted to share what I learned with you all here today.
It has been said that what comes into a person’s mind when he or she thinks about God is the most important thing about him or her.
When we have a high view of God, it will lead to holy living, worship, evangelism, and service. I hope to spark within you today a heart’s desire to study more about this wonderful God we love and are known by.
When we gain a better understanding of Who God is, we will be better equipped in our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Every area of our life and worldview is influenced by who we understand God to be.
When we speak of God's attributes, we are talking about those characteristics that help us to understand who He truly is.
We will never be able to fully grasp the depth of God’s character, but I hope we can get a bit more of a glimpse in our short time together today.
For the show notes and resources mentioned head to ThankfulHomemaker.com

EP 30: Cultivating Self-Control in Our Lives

The need for self-control is clear in God’s Word. There is much said about it. We live in a world where we are tempted daily to overindulge and live outside our boundaries. We live in a world that is dominated by “self” – Self-centeredness, self-pity, selfishness, self-deception.
Wayne Barber shared: What’s the middle letter of the word sin? What’s the middle letter? What’s the middle letter of the word pride? Now, you take those two things out—which by the way, the cross does—then you don’t even have a word. When you say yes to Him, you’ve just crucified the “I,” the flesh.
Proverbs 25:28 says, "like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit." This proverb gives us a picture of a city with its walls broken down and is utterly defenseless as a picture of what happens when our wall of defense. Our self-control is gone, and we’re not able to battle the sinful desires that wage war against our soul.
Self-control means to master our emotions instead of being mastered by them. It is the ability to control oneself and in particular our emotions and desires or the expression of them in our behavior – especially in difficult situations.
For the show notes and resources mentioned in the podcast head to ThankfulHomemaker.com
 

EP 29: Where to Begin When You're Overwhelmed in Caring for Your Home

I’m sharing today from a post I wrote quite awhile back called Where to Begin When You're Overwhelmed, and it was dealing with our home keeping. It’s been a very controversial post and people either have a love or hate relationship with it. I’m hoping you all are in the love camp today because I’m not a fan of being in the hate camp.
Before we begin, I want to lay out a statement here that I want you to remember as we walk through this. What I’m sharing is going to look different in every home. I don’t know all the battles or circumstances in your home from health and illness difficulties or various trials you’re dealing with. This may not be the season of your life for you to listen to a podcast on this topic right now.
I’m never talking about perfection or Stepford wives or making an idol out of your homekeeping or whatever your thinking because as soon as you write a post or share a podcast about this topic of homekeeping that’s where the conversation tends to go.
This isn’t about having a Martha Stewart lifestyle in your homemaking. It is about the heart of a homemaker who loves the Lord and desires to love and care for her family well because of the God she serves.It is out of a heart of love and thankfulness because she has been redeemed. Thank you, Jesus!
This also does not mean you don’t do anything outside your home or saying you can’t work outside the home or have any employment. I work for my husband’s business and have ever since my kiddos were young.  In my past - I’ve worked outside the home and inside the home and still work inside the home as a homemaker and for my husband’s business. This is not a SAHM vs. working mom podcast. This is for all Christian women in whatever season of life you’re in.
I want to chat with you today as if I’m talking with my daughter – (Hello My Amberif you’re listening) and encouraging her in the role the Lord has called her to as laid out in Titus 2:3-5
3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
Getting some foundational understanding of why we are called keepers of our homes will be an encouragement in itself not to be overwhelmed in your homekeeping, but I hope to set your mind on things of the Lord and His ways today.
For the show notes and resources mentioned please head to ThankfulHomemaker.com

EP 28: Dealing with Our Anxiousness and Worry

We are discussing on today's podcast what God’s Word has to say about our anxiousness and worry.
We’ve been working through the book of Matthew at church and have been in the Sermon on the Mount for quite a few months now.
I’ve been utilizing D. Martin Lloyd Jones sermon series to read along with the scriptures as I prepare for Sunday mornings. It’s a great resource, and it’s called Studies in the Sermon on the Mount.
One thing Pastor Ross shared about this text (Matthew 6:25-34) and what I want to begin with is an area that convicted me. When I am worried about a situation – I’m creating an idol. Worry reveals the idols of my heart, something I treasure more than Christ.
My worry usually isn’t about physical things. It can be at times, but my worry and anxious thoughts usually come about with situations in my life that I have no control over. I tend to worry about the outcomes that I have no control over, pretty pointless.
At that moment I forget Who is in control and my thoughts are self-centered and I believe at that moment that I know better than God. Ugh – that’s sin and my worry surely isn’t helping God in any way. At that moment – how Pastor Ross put it – I have forgotten that God is ruler – not me.
The passage in (Matthew 6:25-34) reminds me what Jesus says to worriers like myself.  As we walk through this passage today my prayer is that the Lord would speak to my heart and yours and the hope is we will both be reminded that the Lord knows what we need and has already provided for it.
For the show notes and resources listed head to ThankfulHomemaker.com

EP 27: Planning Our Days as Homemakers

I have always been a planner oriented person. I love notebooks and pens and making lists. I love seeing items I have to-do written down. Planning has been a help to me in caring well for my home and family. It helps me to keep order and meet the needs of my family and others while still getting time to do some of the things I love to do too (like write on this blog here). 
I'd like to walk through with you today how I use my planner to plan my days. It isn't meant to be copied buy to spark ideas on ways you can plan your days working with the way God has wired you. 
The days and weeks I take the time to plan well are the ones that are my most productive and efficient. I hope you'll be encouraged today to grab a few nuggets that may work for you and your life. 
For the Show Notes & Resources mentioned head to ThankfulHomemaker.com
To get a copy, while supplies last of The Homemaker's Friend Daily Planner at half-price ($7.50) you can do that here.