Maiden Writing Contest--Martha

Written and Submitted by: Martha Harrouff, age 13

Why I Desire to Learn How to be a Keeper at Home

I knew that I wanted to be a keeper-at-home when I was nine or ten years old. Before that, I wanted to be a nurse or a missionary to Greenland. I believe that women should be keepers-at-home, instead of having a career and not getting married and having children. I also believe that God wants women to stay at home in this way from these verses:

"That they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed."
~ Titus 2:4-5 (NKJV)

I like to do the things that keepers-at-home do, i.e. cooking, baking, taking care of children, etc. If it is not God's will for me to be a keeper-at-home, I would like to sew for a living and make things for people. Another thing that I would like to be is the person who teaches girls how to sew, crochet, knit, etc. if other mothers are unable to do so.

The skills that I am cultivating now are sewing, knitting, crocheting, taking care of children, gardening and cleaning. I am also learning how to do rubber-stamping, calligraphy and drawing. Cards are expensive, so I think that knowing how to make cards is a good idea. You can use a rubberstamp over and over to make cards. Rubberstamps are a little expensive, bur worth it. Calligraphy is a nice thing to know how to do, because you can use it for cards, letters or anything else and it is very pretty.

I am crocheting things now for my future home. I also collect books by authors that I like, i.e. Lois Lenski, Martha Finley, Marguerite Vance and many others. I also collect cookbooks. I have been collecting some basic ones lately, such as: The New Joy of Cooking, The Better Crocker Picture Cookbook and others. I am collecting Taste of Home magazines--which is a nice cooking magazine. I also have a recipe box which has many recipes in it. I have many sewing and other handwork reference books. I get them at library book sales. I have The Good House Keeping Needlecraft Encyclopedia, Singer Sewing Book and others. I have started a "homemakers notebook." I put in ideas and crafts, recipes and the like from different things. I also have a hope chest (in a Rubbermaid tub). I am making things like knitted dishcloths, crocheted and sewn baby things, and other miscellaneous items. I knitted one baby blanket and I am crocheting another one now. I have also crocheted two baby cardigans.

My plan is to someday be a keeper-at-home because that is what I believe God would want me to do. I am preparing myself by learning skills and making things that will help me in being a keeper-at-home.

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