Keeper At Home Temptations, Part 4

KAH TEMPTATIONS, PART 4:  A ROAMING SPIRIT

     Sometimes keeping at home sounds boring.  In fact, sometimes it is boring.  It is so much fun to daydream, or to schedule activities outside the home.  We kahs need that refreshment:  visiting with friends, errands-running, a walk, a date night, etc.  

     However, it is too easy to allow those boring, or stressful, days to overwhelm us.  We will mull over our "plight," finding any reason to leave our post.  We don't want to be here.  We want to be over there, doing that thing.  Anything to not have to manage our sometimes boring, or sometimes frustrating, or sometimes _____, home.

     For a brief moment, or moments, we can escape.  We can laugh, we can relax, whereas at our home all we see is work.  Work, work, and more work.  Stress, stress, and more stress.  Dull, dull, and more dull.  Thanklessness after thanklessness for all we do do.  Bad attitudes, bad finances, bad marriages, rebellious children, bad hair days...The list continues.  

     Yet, it really all is in how we approach our God-given post.  Proverbs 14:1 says:  "Every wise woman buildeth her house:  but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands."  We can choose to build up our home, or pluck it down.  Either we are doing what we can with what we have to create our house into a home, (or apartment into a home, since that is my dwelling place), or we can pluck it down with our discontent, bored, frustrated, lazy attitudes.

     Now, please don't misunderstand me.  I am not saying that going out of the home to do things, or take care of things, or visit folks, is wrong.  What I am saying is that when a kah views her home as a cage, wanting to be outside her home, wishing to not take care of her home, or hating it, not wanting to take the time to train the children, not wanting to take care of her husband, and so forth, is wrong.  I Timothy 5:13, 14 says:  "And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.  I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully."  I know that this passage is specifically geared to young widow ladies, but we can take application.  If God wants a widow (woman whose husband has died) to remarry to avoid those things, then obviously He does not want any woman doing those things.  2 Timothy 3:16, 17 says:  "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:  That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."

     We need to be diligent to not get caught up in the thinking that the grass is greener on the other side, (or for our situation, outside the home).  If you constantly are daydreaming, scheming, and finding yourself out of your home, and your home is in disarray (whether it be the spirit of the home, the home itself, or both), then indeed there is a problem.  You might want to ask yourself why you don't want to be home, and if and how you are encouraging the problem(s) there.  Then look to the Word of God for the solution(s), and seek the Lord in being victorious in this area.

     Satan would love to destroy your home.  He will use any means to see its demise, and all too often he does start with the woman, just like he did with Eve.  Was she discontent?  I don't know.  If she was content, I wonder if she would have denied the temptation to be and do something "better."  Genesis 3:1-6:  "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD GOD had made.  And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:  But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."

She shouldn't have listened to the devil, and we shouldn't either.  

SOME WAYS TO AVOID HAVING A ROAMING SPIRIT

1. Read the Bible.  Before reading, pray that God would make you sensitive to His teaching.  Let Him cleanse you and change your heart in this matter.  "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word."--Psalm 119:9
2. Study the different women of the Bible.  Pay attention to their characteristics.  Pay attention to how they occupied themselves, and where.  I just did a brief study this morning on Ruth.  She is a godly testimony of a woman who did not set about being a busybody, idle, or a roaming spirit, even in the face of poverty.  She kept herself occupied in the care of Naomi and herself.  Due to her testimony, Boaz took notice of her.  Read the book of Ruth, (only 4 chapters), to find out the end of the true account if you don't already know. ;)  Also, a word study or studies would be beneficial.  Words such as diligent, faithful, keeper at home, woman, and content are a good start.  "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."--2 Timothy 2:15
3. As always, go to your husband and pray together on this issue.  "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.  The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."--James 5:16
4. Be diligent!  Know your enemy!  Satan is diligent to seek ways to destroy the saints, and knows us well.  He is subtle, he is smart, and he will use any means he can to cause us to sin.  "Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds."--Proverbs 27:23  

Just joining the "TEMPTATIONS" series?  Here are the first three:

1. OVERSPENDING MONEY
2. WASTING TIME
3. GIVING UP THE POST