A Course Correction: Method and Result

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. – Proverbs 27:6

A while back, I got a loving email from a dear friend expressing some concerns about this group. It made me do a lot of soul-searching, and I realized I needed to make a course correction. Not a major change, but a realignment, if you will. The timing of the letter was providential, in that I had already been ruminating on these things after I had a conversation with my husband about possibly doing a podcast to supplement the articles for those who have a hard time finding time to read. Between these two things, I was convicted of the necessity of making a course correction.

From the beginning, it has been my goal to discuss the work of the homemaker without wading deep into the lake of theology. I wanted to do this so that women of many different backgrounds and beliefs engaged in the same work could come together and discuss the wonder of being homemakers and domestic artists. I wanted to do this because I don’t believe I’m gifted in theological understanding and explaining. I think theology absolutely impacts how I make my home, but touching on it opens up more issues than I have the ability or desire to deal with.

Unfortunately, I lost sight of this and have allowed my personal theological growth to seep into my articles creating an environment where all of you have to do too much sifting. I have done the exact opposite of what I wanted. By not gatekeeping myself, I’ve forced our group to be too narrow by constantly bringing in more nuanced theology. I apologize. Please forgive me for not holding the line. Please forgive me for all the times I have overstepped my authority (which is only that I started and head up our little group here) and/or stepped out of my appropriate sphere. Thank you, all of you, who have stuck with me as I’ve fumbled and bumbled my way through this. Your grace and understanding and patience has been humbling. Please continue to show me so much kindness. I need it.

I’ve already moved a couple of articles and removed the articles I wrote on Proverbs, Timothy, and the series dealing with Submission, Independence, Gentleness, and Quietness. My goal has never been to supplement your Pastors or their teaching with what I write. I’m not a pastor. I have no spiritual authority. I have no civil authority. I’m on a journey and I’m sharing that journey with the hope of encouraging other women. At this point, I don’t plan on removing any other articles. They may no longer be what I want, but they are a mark of my journey. They will stand as a totem of slow and steady growth.

This course correction will be to keep myself fully in the common kingdom sphere of homemaking, hearthkeeping, and the domestic arts.

I’m not saying I don’t have opinions or convictions about theology and home, but I don’t think it’s appropriate to have them in the articles, or to teach them as Truth. My goal is to return to my original foundation of discussing and exploring the methods of homemaking and the results of implementing those methods. Or, examining results and exploring the methods we might employ to get there. I want to continue to discuss the generational sharing of knowledge.

Will my Christianity shine through? Obviously. But I’m going to stay in the realm of natural law as much as possible.

I hope one of the benefits of this will be an environment in the group that is open to the unique cornucopia of possible ways to manage our homemaking. Yes, I’ll still only be addressing women, that will never change. Yes, the members of the group are women engaged in the profession of homemaking to one degree or another. That’s not going to change, because that’s why we’re here. I’m incapable of touching on every nuance of our different lives and experiences. I’m trusting everyone to be kind to each other, to not make their views and applications hills to die on, and to be able to decide what applies to them and what doesn’t. That means the women in this group will be women interested in growing their abilities in the domestic arts and better understanding how the domestic arts directly affect the people their tending. Some of you will have part-time jobs or even full-time jobs outside the home. Some of you will be homeschoolers, which is a full-time job in the home. Some of you will be engaged more deeply than others in the profession of homemaking. That’s fine. But we’re all here because our homemaking, our tending of our people, the domestic arts are important to us. This group should be one facet of a rich life. Yes, it is a major theme in my life because I’ve chosen for it to be, but not all women/families will make that decision. SO! All that to say, this group is about growing in the domestic arts, the profession of homemaking, the method and the result. There is a wide variety of ways to go about this that will give us plenty to discuss without getting out of bounds.

Many of you probably won’t notice the course correction I’m making. I can’t speak too much for the Facebook group, but our casual chat is mostly sharing methods and results or asking about methods and results. That’s where I would like all of us to stay. I still want to draw out the intangible mindsets, and the wide range of productivity that can be found in our homes. I will hold the line against going into discussions of theology, marriage, and childrearing. I think homemaking facilitates all of those wonderfully and is supportive of them, obviously, but I think there is value in looking at them separately. I will still talk a lot about doing all our work to tend our people. That is the foundation of homemaking. You’re not making a home if you’re not tending people.

I hope this makes sense to everyone. I greatly appreciate your gracious patience as I’ve worked through all this. I hope we can continue to carry on encouraging each other and working together to become better and better HearthKeepers and to pass that knowledge on to our daughters.