"That's Nice, But I Want to do Something More With My Life"

  Let me begin by stating that I find no scriptures in the Bible that forbid a woman from working outside the home or being involved in business altogether.  That being said, what I do find is in Titus 2:3-5 where Paul exhorts the older women to teach "young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed."
  I could blog on each of these exhortations, and may just do that very thing, but today I would like to focus on the "homemaker" portion of this scripture.  John MacAruthur expounds on this point nicely:

"... wives are to be workers at home. One of the hardest things for many contemporary wives to do is be satisfied with being a homemaker. Part of the reason is that modern appliances and other conveniences greatly simplify and reduce housework, and time that is not used for something constructive inevitably produces boredom, dissatisfaction, and often increased temptations. Women who have no children or whose children are grown obviously have fewer obligations in the home and therefore much more time available, and the point is not so much that a woman's place is in the home as that her responsibility is for the home. She may have a reasonable outside job or choose to work in the church or to minister in a Christian organization, a hospital, a school, or many other ways. But the home is a wife's special domain and always should be her highest priority. That is where she is able to offer the most encouragement and support to her husband and is the best place for extending hospitality to Christian friends, to unbelieving neighbors, and to visiting missionaries or other Christian workers." 

 I particularly like the underlined section above.  The whole point is that God designed the wife's role to be one of running and overseeing the needs of her home, husband, and children, if they have them.  That is to be her top priority and focus of  her heart. The decision to take on work outside of the home is a personal one that each couple must seek God's guidance to carefully make.
  In our family, I find that keeping the home is more than a full time job and requires all of my creative, mental, and physical capabilities to be at all successful.  It would be impossible for me to do what I do, AND hold down a job outside of the home. Such decisions come with sacrifices, and the biggest one we undertake is financial in nature.  However, although it is tight at times, and we don't have quite as much freedom as some other families, we have a family that is close, and children who lack for nothing important.  This is the path we felt God was calling us to pursue, and we have found Him faithful to provide our every need to accomplish this task so far.
  This soap-box presentation is brought to you because of an encounter my husband had at his school the other day.  He overheard a girl saying, "Yeah, I love my mom, but I want to do something more with my life."  I do not begrudge a girl from pursuing any dream she feels called to follow, but what grieves my heart is the idea that mothers who stay at home are not using all their talents or achieving their full potential.  Such a passive comment betrays the growing dishonor our society has for stay-at-home-moms, and our families suffer for it. 

  In homeschooling our daughters, I have stumbled across a new personal heroine, Abigail Adams.  For those of you unfamiliar with her, she was a stay-at-home-mother to four children.  She protected her family in the midst of a war being fought all around her home, and braved a small pox epidemic, all while running the family farm in her husband's long absence.  Where was her husband?  Well,he was helping the thirteen colonies take the crucial step in transforming from British states to becoming a cohesive republic. His name was John Adams, second president of the United States.  Not only was this self-educated, brilliant minded young wife her husband's sounding board for the direction of our young country, she was also carefully attending to the needs of her children, one of whom became our nation's 6th president. (John Quincy Adams).  It grieves me that Abigail didn't have the opportunity to make something of her life. (smirk) 
  Abigail is my kind of feminist.  She wrote to her husband to "remember the ladies" when he and Thomas Jefferson, along with Benjamin Franklin were making the laws for our newly formed government.  She desired for women to have the right to be educated, acknowledging that all of society would benefit from having highly skilled homemakers and mothers.  She pressed for woman to have the right to vote, own property, and have legal re-course against an abusive husband.  But, Abigail  felt strongly that the wife's role and influence was most powerfully played out in the sphere of the home.  I'm sure that she did not feel un-fulfilled and useless to society.  Quite the contrary, as her preserved personal letters, and her place in history attest.
  I hope that as the older women teach the younger ones, as the above scripture commands, that they will honor the role of the stay-at-home mom.  I hope that they don't boil that role down to a glorified housekeeper.  Instead, let them allow young women to feel fulfilled, without added pressure to carry on a personal career, so that those who feel called to stay at home will have the support of their fellow women.
The shaping of the next generation falls heavily upon mothers' shoulders, and it is a position to be honored and respected all on its own.