Sarah knew what was going on in her home. She paid attention.
I have known women that did not know what their children were doing even when they were in the same room with them. They simply did not pay attention.
Sarah looks at what is going on. She knows what her children are up to.
The only way to really teach children to be the kind of adults we want them to be is to teach them those character traits they need when the need shows itself. We could set up classes to address these things, but it is my experience that classes are a poor way to make a real life point. Catching a child being mean and talking them through how their sibling feels or reminding them of how they felt sometime when someone was mean to them, is what I have found works best. If I am lucky, it is the same child receiving the mean treatment as was giving it the last time and I can draw each ones attention to how they felt being on the receiving end. Two lessons with one “stone.”
God, of course, "looks well to the ways of His Home." He is always on duty, always knows what is going on. Like me teaching my children, He often uses real life situations to teach us those things we need to know to become the kind of "adult" he wants us to be. Sometimes we can't see why we are going through hard times, but He is really preparing us for Heaven by "knocking some rough edges off" or showing us some object lesson we need to learn.
I bet Sarah also knew how many shirts, pants, and coats each of her children had, if her husband was running out of socks yet, or if anyone was in need of a haircut. These are all parts of looking well to the ways of our homes. It is our job as Keepers of Our Homes to make sure everyone has those basic things they need to function; to make sure our home is not falling down around our ears.
This is not an easy job sometimes. It takes a lot of "looking to."
I didn't really realize how much I have learned to do out of necessary habit until I prepared for our last vacation. Making sure everyone of the nine of us (one being potty trained and one in diapers) had enough clothes for cold or hot weather, food to get us through the first day and a half (we like to visit grocery stores in new places to see how they differ from our own anyway, so we just restock our food every other day or so), enough toys to occupy but not too many to keep track of, plenty of bedding, any educational stuff we would need such as maps, field guides, cameras, sketch books, plus prepare for any and all emergencies made me realize what all I had in my care on a daily basis. After all, I care for these areas all of the time, I just don't have to think of them all at once most of the time.
This is really a valuable position we women have. How can our husbands possibly conquer the world if they don't have enough clean underwear? How can our children revolutionize the planet if they can't find their shoes? "Looking to the ways of our households” is really the most important job in the world!
God is so good at this He even knows how many hairs we have on our heads. I am not that good. I don't know how many hairs any of my children have. But God does. He knows what we need long before we do and will supply. He promised and the Bible says He cannot lie, so He WILL supply. I wish He didn't always wait until the last minute, but He has always provided in time. I think He waits so long because He wants to build our faith in Him. Imagine if He supplied immediately. We would get used to never having to give a second thought to where things come from because they would always be there. By waiting, He makes us very aware of our lacking and that we cannot fill it ourselves. Then when He does supply, we know for sure it is Him.
Sarah is also not one to be idle. She is up, busy getting things done. We have discussed her lack of laziness before. She did not spend hours per day just sitting in front of the TV or surfing the web. She got things done.
This verse compares idleness to eating bread. An apt comparison.
Try this some time. Set a fresh baked loaf of bread out on your kitchen counter. Allow yourself, just for today, to take a nibble out of it every time you walk past it. Are you finding more reasons to go into the kitchen today? How long before the entire loaf is gone? Most of us could easily eat the entire thing over the course of a day just by taking little nibbles now and then.
This is what idleness is like. "I think I will just sit down and watch this one show or read just one chapter in my book, look up one more thing on Google." Before we know it, our idleness has nibbled away the entire day. It's gone. We can never get it back any more than we could get back that loaf of bread.
In one fictional book I read, written in the late 1800's, a young motherless woman asks her mother-in-law how she accomplishes everything she gets done. From the "work" to the "fancy work" (embroidery, reading, the fun stuff.) The older woman's reply? "I make myself get a certain amount of the less enjoyable stuff done before I allow myself to do the fun stuff."
The equivalent in my day would be getting up and doing my chores (dishes, laundry, vacuuming, make the bed, etc.) Then I do school. Only when school is over do I allow myself to pick up that neat new book I bought yesterday, or check my e-mails, or put that video on I have been wanting to see.
Does it work? I made five of us girls (youngest daughter hadn’t been born yet) new dresses by hand (well, sewing machine) for Christmas a couple of years ago by simply adding 15 minutes of sewing into those required chores, and my kitchen was clean and my husband had matching socks, to boot.
Anytime I let myself sit down and read, or surf the net in the morning before my work is done, I don't get anything else- even school- accomplished.
We need both work and play in our lives, but the nature of play is such that it will take over if we are not careful.
In another book written at the same time as the one above, a mother tells her girls to make sure each day contains some good work and some good play or else you will either become lazy or burnt out (paraphrase into 21 century terms). We should take this wisdom of times past to our lives.
I have been pondering why we should make sure we use our time well. It is not something I often think of because my chosen lifestyle simply does not allow laziness. It would be pretty hard to give my children a decent education without actually doing something
But why work so hard? Why be careful to use every minute to some good (whether good work or good play)? I believe our time is a resource God has given us. It is a gift. Like any other gift, He expects us to use it wisely.
Imagine if God walked up and handed you a can of paint and a paint brush. You would know that He wanted you to go paint something. It would not be a wise thing to dump the paint on the ground and feed the brush to the dog, would it?
Well, God has given you twenty-four hours every day to use wisely. You must make sure you get enough sleep and relaxation. (It is not wise to wear yourself out when God provides ways to keep going, though most of us need less relaxation than we think.) But you should also make sure you get the work done He wants you to do. Ask Him every morning what He wants you to do with this gift of time He has given you. And try to honestly listen for His answer. He just might surprise you.
Oh, and a diet tip: Don't leave a loaf of bread (or a jar of cookies, plate of brownies, bag of potato chips, etc.) out on your counter. You will eat them all and never even realize you did.
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