The Front Door

A distinctive front door is a little piece of art all in itself. I remember being so taken with doors in England. Both times we were there (oh, that it could be more!), were ongoing searches to take pictures of doors and their equally delightful doorknobs. My door fascination makes the front door of the priority house a very special part of the home for me.

In the priority house, the keys open the door of outlook on the home. What do you see standing in the doorway? A family bungalow? A cold showplace? A trash heap? A medicinal clean? A trinket warehouse? A tasteful warmth? A spiritual welcome? A haunted house? A brothel? A children’s kingdom? An adult playground? A missionary outpost? A political fortress? A modern learning center? A leather-bound philosophy library? A people manufactory?

If church is truly the believers, not the building, then home is likewise: home is the people, not the place. The front door of the priority house gives me insight about how I should think and the outlook I should have about my place in the home institution. My outlook will in turn, affect (vastly) the flavor the whole home assumes.

Two different outlooks about my home priorities and my place in the home have given me no end of practical application, and have often protected me from being demeaned by the routine of many home tasks.

Titus 2, with its career call to be a teacher of good things, offers the first helpful outlook on my role in the home. I must look at myself as a teacher and set myself to develop the professional bearing, the love for learning, the tutorial mindset, and the effective expression any teacher must have to be effective.

Proverbs 31, with its competent wife overseeing a variety of enterprises on a large homestead, offers a second helpful outlook on my role in the home. I must look at myself as an executive and set myself to develop the decisive insight, process-minded outlook, project orientation, and bottom-line consciousness any executive must have to be effective.

I am not a maid, a cook, a laundress, a chauffeur, a doormat, a nincompoop, a broad, an old lady, a plaything, a dishwasher, a baby-maker, a little woman, a slave, or a bird who needs a nest. By God’s great design I am the female expression of His image linked inextricably with the male expression of His image and have been asked by both God and husband to assist them in fulfilling their mission of producing a home capable of glorifying the Lord with the product of its people. Executive and teacher are titles far better suited to such a task than little honey.