House Building 1: Elegant Blueprint

Simple, elegant solutions are some of my favorite things. I love when a time puzzle meshes perfectly. I get excited when one piece of paper can take the place of five. And a truly valuable tidbit that provides lifelong help is positively inspiring.

Of course, this meant I wanted an at-a-glance way to keep everything about myself, my home, and my family in front of me. I wanted an infographic thirty years ago. As is most often the case, the answer came from Scripture.

Proverbs 14: 1 says that “Every wise woman builds her house, but the foolish plucks it down with her hands.” I was fairly sure that women were not the literal house builders in Middle Eastern culture. That meant something even more exciting: women were a significant factor in the complex organization called home. 

Destructive Distraction

Being thought wise (by the Lord, no less) for attending to house building, was a double bonus. But the part that bulleted home, was the insight that a foolish woman nitpicks her house to pieces. She’s not intentionally trying to bulldoze the thing into oblivion, but her distractedness to what is significant serves the same purpose. Her lack of system makes clothes (often) not ready when the people are. Reading on the sofa all day—no wait, I meant, talking on the phone all day (something I don’t do!) fritters away more than time; it also fritters away opportunity. It’s the being rushed with work and groceries and church and more work that makes even one family dinner, serious talks with kids, or a quiet evening with the Lord almost unheard of. And it happens with such innocent benign neglect, just a little lack of foresight, and only a splash or two of laziness.

So I made a blueprint. Actually, it has always looked more like a cartoon drawing of a house, even with a few updates over the years for different speaking opportunities, but it is still only one sheet and it does cover everything I need to oversee. If I could ever figure out how to do a computer generated 3-D version, I’d post it, but for now, just imagine the layout of your dream house.

Wise Woman’s Blueprint

My guess is that your house, like mine, has a FRONT DOOR that needs to be opened with some KEYS. Off to the side, away from the bustle of the rest of the house is what used to be the master bedroom, but (as real estate programs have become popular) has become: the complete EN SUITE. I can do en suite: a lovely sleeping area, the private bath, walk-in closet(s), and a little spacious sitting area. Such a private retreat with eight children would have been nice, but our starter home is likely to be our retirement home, and I’m still trying to get a comfortable chair in my bedroom. The private bath has almost happened: as soon as everyone leaves, our one bath will become a private bath for my husband and me, right? But in my blueprint, the en suite is perfect.

KIDS’ ROOM, LAUNDRY, WORKSHOP, OFFICE: I could get a lot done in a house with each of those rooms. And I did, at least on my paper house. When I was finished with my dream blueprint, I had everything in place to guide my thinking around my life and my home. Let me give you a quick tour:

Such promise is wrapped up in getting the keys to a new house! Whether the space is large or small, receiving keys means you have a place of your own to  arrange your things, close out the world, and express yourself, not just in clothes on your person, but in furnishings, wall color, art work, music, reading material, cooking utensils, and toilet paper.

What a blessing a home is!

But this paper home, this blueprint, this life schematic, who hands over the keys for that?

I don’t know about your house, but I know when and where and from whom I received the keys to my house.  I was a high school junior in my bedroom when I prayed and asked Christ to be my Savior. Theologians have many wonderful truths to share about that particular moment of salvation for anyone who trusts Christ, the moment when the triune God credits the Savior’s sacrifice to an individual who has requested it, and graciously sends the Holy Spirit to indwell their being. And in that same moment, He brings the keys for the house.

THE KEYS are the Bible truths that inform our thinking about home. They unlock the purpose of the home, the people in the home, and the priorities for those people. Being a woman who is going to be wise and who, therefore, is going to be doing a lot of house building, the Lord hands over other keys: the key character He wants from women, the key career He has planned, the key curriculum to cover, and the key consequence for neglecting His project.

The Holy Spirit swings open THE FRONT DOOR after unlocking it, and in doing so, opens the biblical outlook for a woman’s role in a home; powerful, as only God-breathed insight can be, but still elegantly simple, not hard to remember and so easy to apply to so many situations.

THE EN SUITE is a truly private retreat, the place to meet alone with ourselves, our God and our plans. Here is the place where the benefits of priority stewardship are most keenly felt, because this space is so often the last to receive any attention. Here is where we spend time designing systems to save time in home processes. Here is where we invest time planning spiritual projects to keep us engaged with the Word and dependent on our Lord. Here is where we can ask tough questions about ourselves, so we can both rebuke and encourage ourselves accurately.

KIDS’ ROOMS How many do you need? Every woman needs at least one, because every woman needs to impact children, even if she does not bear them. This is the room where we find out how to do right by the children the Lord sends across our paths. So much fun, so practical, so challenging: what a room! What a gift that the Lord wants every woman: young, old, rich, poor, married, single, Mother Hubbard or barren womb, to have a Kid’s Room to use for children.

LAUNDRY How many maids do you have? Some of you (not me, of course, I had apprentices instead) do have cooks and cleaning ladies like the fine estates of old. Most of us, though, have to muddle through modern life with only twelve or thirteen maids. Unlike human maids and butlers, modern maids don’t need room and board. They do, however, quit unexpectedly, and while we don’t need to interview their replacements, wise home builders will check their references before hiring them on, and will make an effort to get to know them. This is the room where we keep up with all the modern mechanical maids that streamline so much of the house work that is menial. The challenge is to use these maids to their full advantage, and not to squander the time they hand us as they work for our benefit.

THE WORKSHOP Hanging in this workshop are all the time tools we can use for our various home improvement projects: back planning, dove tailing, the Liberty Bell, profitable inefficiencies, and a host of other specialty tools help us develop the skills we need to steward our priorities, our processes, our systems, and our output, wisely and well.

THE OFFICE Like most offices there are files and notebookshere, but most importantly, here is where all the work product evaluations are kept. One of the best things about a home is its privacy, and the security and freedom that brings—at least until we cease to be accountable. Then that same privacy can become a curse. Using evaluations helps keep us on our toes, makes everything we do more fun and professional (just like Google!), and gives practical help for planning future projects. Seriously, I have yet to run out of things to try around my house, and I am getting OLD.

Even when the rooms are full of all their stuff, the blueprint still fits on one sheet! Simple. Elegant. I love it.