Wives and mothers working outside the home

Tim Bayly writes...

"The issue is critically important, and yet not to be dealt with in a wooden way. Specifically, some work outside the home is always required of wives and mothers and is good and right--Biblical, even...


"Buying and selling land. Teaching the younger women at the church-house. Making cookies and taking them to the homeschool co-op or school classroom. Teaching in the homeschool co-op or school classroom. Buying groceries. The list is long. Some work outside the home is required by the specifics of a home and marriage. Husbands die or are disabled and mothers must provide for their families. Husbands commit adultery and abandon their wives and children forcing their wives to provide for their children. Again, the list is long.

"There are any number of other reasons a husband and wife might make a decision for the wife to work outside the home and we must be careful not to subvert the freedom of their consciences by declaring or insinuating that decisions they've made based on circumstances we have a limited knowledge of are contrary to the Word of God. At the same time, we must recognize that in Reformed churches today too many of our marriages are contrary to the Word of God precisely at this point. Women are not domestic, but have deserted the home for work and play. Our older women, but also our elders, pastors, and deacons must admonish those women who have abandoned their home."


More here.