Supporting
Your Work At Home Wife
By Allen Hart
The
new trend in our society is working from home. Many women are
leaving the corporate world to come home and care for their
families, but they still desire to contribute financially. It can be
challenging to work from home, especially for women who have
children to care for as well.
Is
your wife is one of the growing number of work at home moms? Here
are ten key tips on supporting her:
1.
Encouragement is key
Sometimes all that your wife needs in order to be successful with
whatever she is working on is a little encouragement. Often times
she won’t have anyone else around to give her the encouragement
that she needs and you may be the only person that can give her the
encouragement she needs.
2.
Help with whatever she is doing
Depending on the business there may be extra work that could be done
by you. For example, with my wife’s website, Christian Work at
Home Moms (www.cwahm.com), she will often need someone to write a
script, setup an email account, or proofread a document. Some of the
tasks aren’t going to be the most glamorous but 5 minutes could
save your partner hours of time and added stress.
3.
Be positive
It's easy to be a positive influence on your wife and her business.
Listen to her when she talks about her business. Don't put down her
ideas for business growth - help her think of new ideas to help her
business grow. Remember that just because she is working from home,
that does not make her business any less important or legitimate. If
you are a positive influence on your wife and take an interest in
her business, there's no telling how big the business might grow! As
wives, we need our husband's support and encouragement!
4. Watch the kids
Your wife is at home with the kids all day every day. Sometimes she
is going to need a chance to work with no distractions. If the kids
are constantly asking questions and bugging your wife she can’t
get anything done. Don’t wait to be asked. Be proactive and offer
to watch the kids.
5.
Listen
Your wife might not have a large support system or other co-workers
to bounce ideas off of. She is going to need someone to talk to and
more importantly listen to the ideas she has. I think this goes hand
in hand with encouragement. You will need to listen and encourage,
sometimes that is all she needs.
6.
Let her run the show
This is her job her business she gets to call the shots. I know that
the way my wife and I handle the business decisions is that she runs
all of her ideas by me and we mutually make the decisions. A lot of
the decisions can be costly and take a lot of time. Those decisions
should be made together but ultimately it isn’t your decision.
7.
Be a part of the business
Many wives want their husbands to take part in their home business
even if it's just helping to stuff envelopes. Taking the time to do
even small things like this will encourage your wife and show her
that you support her. If there isn't a way to be directly involved
with your wife's business, pick one day a week and do the dishes or
another chore that will free up some time for your wife to work at
her business.
8. Don't
let her give up.
Most work at home moms will tell you that it takes 3-4 years to
build a successful business. It doesn't happen overnight. When your
wife feels discouraged, listen to her and ask if she would like your
input on the situation. She will need your encouragement to stick
with it. We wives do not like to fail our husbands and we sometimes
feel like failures when our businesses are not doing well. Remind
your wife of the time that it takes to grow a business and that
EVERY business has times during the year when sales are slow.
9.
Surprise her
This may not sound like a business tip, but a great way to help your
wife stay motivated is to bring her little “surprises” –
flowers, her favorite candy, a business supply that she can’t
bring her self to spend the money on. All of these are great ways to
remind her of your support.
10.
Pray
Most importantly, this business is going to need prayer. Never
underestimate the power of prayer to help you get going and keep the
whole project rolling. If you aren’t talking to God on a regular
basis it will be very hard to stay on track.
By
following these ten simple tips, you can help strengthen your
wife’s home-based business. She will appreciate your efforts and
your marriage will benefit as well. Supporting your work at home
wife is one of the best ways to show you care.
About
the Author
Allen Hart is the founder of CWAHD.com, Christian Work at Home Dads.
CWAHD.com was designed to assist dads in their quest for a work at
home job or business. For more information and additional articles,
visit www.cwahd.com
or contact Allen at info@cwahd.com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Love
and Respect Your Spouse and Receive the Perks!
By Marie Jon'
Forty years of feminist philosophy has brought
severe reproof for just about everything the male does. If we listen
to the feminists, man is evil, stupid, and unjustly tyrannical. The
feminist movement, which began in the early 60’s, has played a
decisive role in denigrating the family. However, the main cause of
family problems today is our self-centeredness.
Mothers and fathers need to be shining
examples. They must instruct and train their children on how to love
their spouses and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be
busy at home, and to be kind and helpful. The word of God is a great
resource for learning these important values and skills.
God gives women affectionate power. Men are
born out of a women's womb. They spend their lives yearning for a
woman’s acceptance and approval. Man is putty in the hands of the
woman he loves. Give him direct communication, respect,
appreciation, good food, and good loving’ and he will do just
about anything you wish, foolish or not.
God made women verbal creatures, which can
frustrate men with an overwhelming amount of talk. Instead of
expecting her husband to be "a girlfriend," the wise wife
should choose the proper topic and timing of discussions.
Men make terrible mind readers, so be direct.
Subtle hints don’t work. This doesn’t mean that man is
insensitive, uncaring, or oblivious.
Tell your man whether you want advice, or if
you’re just letting off steam. God made man to want to be
"our rescuer," so understand that you can frustrate him if
he can't fix what’s bothering you, especially if all you want is
someone to listen.
Take whatever he says at face value. Women
tend to overanalyze men. They are not that complicated.
Men need respect and love. God gave us the
blueprint for a happy marriage. He commands husbands and wives in
the Book of Ephesians: "However, each one of you also must love
his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her
husband."
Women need love just as they needs air to
breathe. This same verse commands a wife to respect her husband.
Why? He needs respect as he needs air to breathe. Treat each other
with the dignity they deserve, for we are made in the image of God.
Respect means not giving way to a display of
one's anger, especially before the children. No emotional outburst
is worth damaging a husband’s reputation before your little ones.
Men long for their wives attention, affection,
and affirmation. Respect involves paying attention to what they do.
Respect means allowing the other person to be different than you.
Both men and women want to be acknowledged and
appreciated for the things they do. Showing respect is to keep the
home you made together clean and well kept. It’s a reflection of
your love. Try to keep up with each other's wisdom. Grow in the word
of God together, as well as intellectually.
Women often make their husbands feel like
children by constantly reminding them to get things done. Men want
to be admired. They want to be acknowledged for being the
breadwinner. One of their greatest pleasures is when they can feel
like a hero for taking care of their families.
Men and women have a different language of
love. Every man and woman wants to be appreciated for who they are
and what they do. Keep an" Appreciation Journal" to help
remind yourself of the things your mate does that you appreciate.
Tell your spouse every day that you love and appreciate him/her.
Thank each other for being faithful. Thank God
for the love you share with each other. Give thanks for your
children. Love your spouse with kindness and respect, and receive
all the fantastic perks
When love, respect and appreciation are openly
expressed, a happy home is it's own rewards. The American family
needs to return to godly principals.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Broken
Promises, lies, and Infidelity
by Angie Lewis
Are you a person of your word?
What about your spouse? Does your spouse trust you? Being trustworthy
is an awesome character trait and is essential for a healthy marriage.
But there are many things that we say and do that will break the bonds
of trust with our spouse.
1. Broken Promises:
Keeping promises to our spouse
is a very important part of marriage. It builds trust and shows we are
committed in what we say and do? God tells us to make our yes's a yes
and our no's a no. What does that mean?
And do not swear by your head,
for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your Yes
be Yes and your No be No, anything beyond this comes from the evil
one. Matthew 5:37
We shouldn't end our
statements with, "I swear to God" because this is swearing
falsely in God's name. We shouldn't end our statements with, "I
promise". God wants us to be "true"
to what we say! This means we are to do what we say
and say what we do. This is being true to our word.
An example of swearing falsely
is if your spouse says to you, "I swear to God, I will take you
out to dinner on Friday". But when Friday rolls around your
spouse is working late and can't go. What happened? Your spouse used
God's name to promise a dinner date but ended up breaking that
promise. They broke their promise to you, and more importantly to God.
They're not being sincere with their words, are they?
Why do we make promises that
we know we may not be able to keep? We truly believe that we can back
up our promises with action. We want people to believe in us so bad
that we say, "I promise", or "I swear to God"
because we want to please our loved ones. But more often than not,
busy schedules and priorities get confused and promises get broken.
If you're not really sure that
that you can keep a promise to your spouse then don't make the
promise! If you are the type of person who often makes promises, do
what you say and be a person your spouse can trust and believe in.
2. Lying:
Lying is like a broken promise
but much worse. Unlike a promise, which you hope
you can keep, a lie is an untruth that deceives people into believing
truth, which in fact is not true. When you lie to your spouse, they
feel deceived and unloved by you. Why would you lie
to your spouse? Can you not be trusted?
There have been numerous
studies made about liars and lying. These studies all say that
everyone lies. What do you think when you read that everyone on this
earth lies? Doesn't that make you believe then it's okay to lie since
everyone is a liar? This is pure media persuasion because not everyone
lies.
Above all, my brothers, do not
swear – not by heaven and not by earth or by anything else. Let your
Yes be yes and your No, no or you will be condemned. James
5:12
Why do we lie to our spouse
when we know it is dishonest? Because we are hiding something we are
ashamed of. Because we do not really have a personal relationship with
Jesus Christ and our conscience doesn't bother us when we lie and
deceive others. Maybe we don't want our spouse to hate us, be mad at
us, or leave us. We aren't bold enough to tell our spouse the truth
about who we really are.
Did you know that nine times
out of ten, your spouse can tell a lie from a truth? This breeds more
mistrust and pretty soon there is nothing left of the marriage because
of this. One of the major components of a happy marriage is trust and
faith among couples.
Are you a liar? You don't have
to be a liar. Be an honest person of character and then you won’t
have to lie. When you can avoid lying, fibbing and making half-truths
you become known as trustworthy, which marriage and all other
relationships thrive on.
3. Lack of Commitment:
If a person is not committed
in what they do they will eventually be dishonest in its interactions.
This is also true with marriage. If couples aren't committed to each
other, what do you think is going to happen? You guessed it. All sorts
of deceitful deeds will be acted upon; making couples feel jealous,
doubt, mistrust, and suspicion.
Unfortunately this kind of
marriage won't last long. Unfaithfulness and
deceitful practices run rampant in marriages today because couples
aren't devoted to the marriage. It is a great virtue of character to
be committed to what you do in life. Your commitment to marriage is
your promise to your spouse that you will be the honest and upright
person you say you are.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joanne's
Devotional
DON’T
BE AFRAID
“The
Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn
thee.”
Jeremiah
31: 3
King
James Version
When
I was a teenager going to church, I never heard a sermon about Jesus
Loving us. All I ever heard preached was if you
aren’t saved you are going to hell. So all my
life I was frightened of Jesus. I have loved him
for twenty six years, but I was afraid of Him. A
couple of months ago, God used my prayer partner to release me from
the fear of Him. She made the statement “When
we sin, Jesus treats us like a naughty child”.
We
do not have to be afraid of Jesus. He Loves us
with an everlasting Love and has drawn us to Him with lovingkindness.
It is very important that we tell people that if they
haven’t made a heart commitment to Jesus, they are on their way to
hell for all Eternity. However, we need to first
tell them how much Jesus Loves them and then prove to them by our
actions that He Loves them.
I
was frightened all my life about people not approving of me.
I was afraid to get my hair cut because many people have told
me that I look good with longer hair. Yesterday,
I got my hair cut short because it is cooler. I
like how I look with long hair, but I wasn’t afraid of displeasing
someone because I got it cut.
The
only person that we have to please and give an account to is Jesus.
If we make Him happy, then He will cause even our enemies to
be peace with us. He will protect us from the
cruel words of criticism and judgment. Is Jesus
happy with you today, or is He looking at you with sadness in His
Heart?
Joanne
Lowe
May
5, 2006
joyful77@heavenwardbound.com
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Ministries
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