Be a Humble Homemaker

As Jesus Himself has humbled Himself for your good, may you also humble yourself for the good of others. As we dive into the Philippians 2, ask God to remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, so you too may imitate Christ’s humility.

As homemakers, we are asked to serve with unending love and selflessness. Although this sounds wonderful and self-giving, it is very hard to do. Our sin nature is driven by pleasure, pride, and selfishness. We not only want what we want, but we grow bitter and hardened hearts when we feel under-appreciated, overworked, and void of our own wants and desires.

As our selfishness and resentment builds, how we speak to others, how we serve or lack to serve others, and our behaviors and attitudes towards others reflect this greatly. Although our sin nature is not always in our control, how we respond to it is. Paul reminds us to imitate Christ in all we do. Let us dwell in both silence and reverence for the beautiful words of Scripture, and pray that we implement them into our lives and our homemaking.

Imitating Christ’s Humility

Philippians 2:1-11

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, ²make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³Do nothing from selfish ambition or vanity (conceit), but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. ⁵Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

⁶who, though he was in the form of God,
    did not regard equality with God
    as something to be exploited,
⁷but emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
⁸    he humbled himself
    and became obedient to the point of death—
    even death on a cross.

⁹Therefore God also highly exalted him
    and gave him the name
    that is above every name,
¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus
    every knee should bend,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹and every tongue should confess
    that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:12-18

¹²Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

¹⁴Do all things without murmuring and arguing, ¹⁵so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world. ¹⁶It is by your holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. ¹⁷But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you— ¹⁸and in the same way you also must be glad and rejoice with me.