After
moving to the mountains of Vermont, we had a small family farm. Life
centered around our home. My siblings and I were encouraged to
discover as many new interests as possible. We were free to learn,
research and build things, to explore and create. It was a simpler
life then. We were “land poor” having little money, but lots of
time. If we needed her, my mother was there for reference and
counsel. I am grateful for those years.
Home Life Today in America – and the Physical, Emotional and Mental Consequences
Back
in1990, I remember going door-to-door as a volunteer for a political
campaign. There were lots of people who answered the doorbell. People
lived in their homes and more moms stayed home.
Almost
thirty years have passed and times have changed. Most moms no longer
stay at home. Expensive houses sit empty, for hours each day.
Children
don't have as many, or any, home-cooked meals. Obesity, diabetes and other
degenerative disease rates are sky-rocketing. Fast food and prepared
foods are not real food, and it shows.
More
importantly, children lack spiritual and emotional nourishment inside
their homes. Long-term health depends not just on physical food, but
in the joy, peace and communion of meal times with family and
friends.
Too
many children, on a large scale today, do not build strong emotional
attachments to their parents in their youth, through interacting with
someone who deeply loves them. Parents often become unavailable to
children through their lack of energy to fully focus, distracted by
simply too much.
While
emotionally neglected children may have “financially successful”
parents who do their best to provide, these parents are simply too
tired, or preoccupied with their own lives or past traumas, to put
themselves into the mind of their child.
This
child is then forced to self-regulate their dopamine, by becoming
literally addicted to social media and video games on iphones or ipad
screens. Or, through abusing sugar, and any number of other
substances and stimulants.
Do
we want to perpetuate these problems, or change them for the better?
Women Are Not Made to Be the Same as Men
The
definition of Feminism is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary
as:
1. the theory of the
political, economic, and social equality of the sexes
2. organized activity on
behalf of women's rights and interests
Equality is defined as: the
state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and
opportunities.
While
I believe men and women are most certainly created equal in value,
this doesn't mean we are meant to have exactly the same roles
in life. Anyone wanting women to face men in hand-to-hand combat is
particularly delusional. Women have shot themselves in the foot,
screaming for the definition of equality mentioned above.
The
fact women were not, by law, able to own their own corporations
before the 1960's was an interesting fact to learn. But women have
always had the
opportunity to have their own home businesses.
While
many women may be wildly "successful" in running their own corporations
today, they are too often emotionally very unhappy, anxious and
physically worn-out.
Women
were designed to have a very different hormone make-up from
men. While women are encouraged to become “leaders” in the
corporate world today, this often puts them under a constant strain
to fight for contracts and job bids. This causes real hormonal
changes. When under prolonged stress, a woman's normal testosterone
level actually rises, making her seem “hard” like a man. Not soft
and nurturing, like a woman.
Does
acting the same as a man give women more or less value? What
is your definition of success? Has the corporate side of law really
helped women for the long-term?
You've
Come a Long Way, Baby
I
remember seeing the famous Virginia Slims cigarette magazine and
billboard ad which said, You've Come A Long Way, Baby. It
seemed like a big fat lie back then. I knew when I was a little girl
that cigarettes were bad for your health.
But
this inciting ad slogan had much deeper connotations. It seems more
like a truth today, but only if you realize women have come a
long way – a long way down.
A
woman was once revered and respected by everyone for taking her
vitally important role inside
the home.
Men have fought and died for
centuries, to protect their homes and families. These men had mothers
and sisters. Once married, they took their roles as protector and
provider of their wives and children very seriously. It was their
honor.
The present-day feminist
movement would have us believe the majority of women before women's
suffrage were beaten, abused, repressed, engulfed in home-life
drudgery, having no opportunities to improve themselves, or become
educated, etc., etc.
I am an anti-feminist. I can
only say this, because I am a woman. If a man opens his mouth against
feminism, he's usually slaughtered. Unfortunately, men don't really
have equal opportunity to state their opinion in today's culture.
It's not socially acceptable.
In saying this, I do not
mean I condone the repression or mistreatment of women in any sense.
I stand for the equality of value of both men and women. Yet
“equality” simply does not mean we were all meant to have the
same roles in life.
Most women who call
themselves “feminists” have, at some time in their lives, been
deeply wounded by a man or men. They are desiring what all women want
– protection. This is the role of a man.
I, too, have been wounded in
life, by both men and women. I just don't like the labels. Why can't
we just work together as men and women? We each have different
strengths and weaknesses.
I do not appreciate hearing
constant false impressions which basically disparage the strong and wise men
and women of our nation's past. Were they stupid back then? Are we so smart, with all of our growing health-care costs and concerns now?
Our nation once had a majority of
strong families, who raised healthy, well-adjusted, un-addicted children with good character.
Surely,
there have always been people, of both genders, who lacked good
morals, but as a whole, our family, communities, culture and society was strong.
Women have always had
opportunities to lead from their homes - in business, agriculture,
health-care, the arts, and fashion. And perhaps even in science. What stops a determined woman who has an interest and a goal? Not much.
Why do we need polarizing labels?
Leading
from the Heart and Home
Taking care of children
emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically is no light task.
It requires a tremendous amount of good character to learn to relate,
encourage, coach, counsel, serve, build and comfort children, who
manage to arrive with very different personalities, needs and
abilities.
Today, we spend huge amounts
of tax-payer money to have other people outside the family care for
our children, inside and outside schools. Children now have enormous
and expensive medical concerns. I believe these problems directly
relate to women failing to take their role of personally nurturing,
caring for and feeding their own children.
When
Titus 2 instructs older women to teach younger women to be a “keeper
at home” this was not given as a sentence of doom! It was meant for
the long-term benefit
and protection of both the woman, and the other members of the
household!
The
Greek word translated “keeper at home” is οἰκουρός
and
means
one who is a guard or watchkeeper of the house, domestically inclined
and a good housekeeper.
There
is definitely something at home to guard and care for, and
unfortunately, today, on too large a scale, over-tired, employed
mothers are struggling to do it. Men, whether they want to
acknowledge it or not, mothers
are in need of your help.
Yes, I get it, many women
long to stay home, but for reasons outside their control, cannot. I
clearly understand the cares of single moms, huge tax burdens, the
lack of assistance and support from family, and other pressures. I
know single moms who work three jobs, trying to pay their bills,
while many immigrants are receiving free food, free housing and free
cell phones.
The beauty of America's
family life continues to be destroyed and degraded by our current
culture's clamour for a woman's “independence” and
“self-sufficiency”.
Is this what we want for our
future?
Interdependence
– Working Together
Stephen
Covey has pointed out in his book, 7
Habits of Highly Effective People, pp. 49-51
that interdependence
is actually of higher value and measures an even greater degree of
maturity than does independence!
Because, as an artist, I
have desired to work primarily from my home, I looked for validation
in a culture which really didn't support my desire. As I grew older,
I clipped and kept newspaper articles about women who were tired of
working in the 9-5 world. These women were wanting to come home, to
work from home.
I've met many women who are
very, very physically exhausted from working like rats in a cage.
Women, who often need more sleep than men, tend to get less sleep today, and subsequently develop serious illnesses after years of prolonged
stress.
When a mother is sick, their family suffers, too.
It
seems obtaining an expensive college education, often
attached to going into debt, and then the requisite job outside the home
are expectations for every
woman today. Our society exults in encouraging only independent women who eventually believe they have
no need of a man's help.
Yet,
while some
women may be cut out for the corporate world and do
manage under strain,
it's just not for
everyone!
All women should not choose to
work like veritable slaves, under non-caring, money-driven employers. I invite you to join these women.
Come home, women, come home. Your nation needs you there.
The hand that rocks the
cradle rules the world. Who is rocking your cradle?
Thoughts from your
painting-friend,
Elise
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. ~ Ephesians 5:20-21
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Rules the World
by
William Ross Wallace (1819-1881)
Blessings on the hand of women!
Angels guard its strength and grace.
In the palace, cottage, hovel,
Oh,
no matter where the place;
Would that never storms assailed
it,
Rainbows ever gently curled,
For
the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand
that rules the world.
Infancy's the tender fountain,
power may with beauty flow,
Mothers first to guide the streamlets,
From
them souls unresting grow —
Grow on for the good or
evil,
Sunshine streamed or evil
hurled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is
the hand that rules the world.
Woman, how divine your mission,
Here upon our natal sod;
Keep — oh, keep the young heart open
Always
to the breath of God!
All true trophies of the ages
Are
from mother-love impearled,
For the hand that rocks the
cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Blessings on the hand of women!
Fathers, sons, and daughters cry,
And the sacred song is mingled
With
the worship in the sky —
Mingles where no tempest
darkens,
Rainbows evermore are hurled;
For
the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand
that rules the world.
