Should Moms Work Outside the Home?

00:00:00.000 | Is it biblically acceptable for a mother to hold a full-time job outside of the

00:00:09.960 | home? This was a question asked of Pastor John a few years back, and this is what

00:00:14.520 | he had to say. It can be. In fact, I would say outside of the home is a complex

00:00:24.320 | statement. It was a complex, I mean, it was complex early on when the farm, I mean

00:00:32.240 | only after the Industrial Revolution, was home and work separated, by and large.

00:00:37.560 | Everywhere there's an agrarian kind of culture, home and work are just together.

00:00:45.360 | If all the kids are weaving the baskets that you sell to make a living, are you

00:00:49.440 | home? If the garden around the house is what supports the family and

00:00:56.080 | husband's out there building a barn and you're doing this, are you home? So all

00:01:02.600 | that to say the very question is ambiguous and it is today, right? A wife

00:01:07.840 | can have a full-time job, my niece has a full-time job, her office is in her home.

00:01:12.400 | She works for a company three states away. So having said it can be, I want to

00:01:21.520 | discourage it, okay? I just want to discourage it because mothering and

00:01:26.720 | homemaking are huge and glorious jobs. What children need at age 1, 5, 6, 14, 18,

00:01:38.720 | what they need is simply amazing and what it calls forth from a woman's

00:01:44.800 | creativity and a woman's heart and a woman's mind personally for each one of

00:01:49.480 | these little ones that are coming along or just the home, a home here where

00:01:54.200 | ministry can happen and you're not enslaved by anybody's clock. You can say

00:01:59.280 | I'm gonna work my tail off for King Jesus but I don't want anybody to pay me for it.

00:02:03.040 | I'm gonna do it right here in this neighborhood with my husband's

00:02:06.040 | connections and my connections. We're gonna lavish grace on people's lives. So

00:02:10.540 | I'm calling for ministry full-time when I say don't work full-time if you got a

00:02:16.840 | family. Turn your family into ministry. Turn your family into a global dream for

00:02:23.040 | what this family might become or what this man might be and what we might be

00:02:27.320 | together as we are a home. So those are the kind of dreams I want to offer to

00:02:34.280 | the younger women that are coming along, that they don't think like, "Oh,

00:02:37.280 | if I don't get a career and make lots of money and be equal with man and pay and

00:02:41.800 | time and everything, they somehow sold out to something small or something that

00:02:46.720 | doesn't require intellectual capabilities." It is a great and glorious

00:02:51.280 | calling to be a mother and a homemaker and a wife and a neighborhood make-it-

00:02:56.400 | happen kind of person and a church minister and who knows what all God

00:03:00.240 | might be pleased to do. That was Pastor John Piper. Thank you for listening to

00:03:05.160 | this podcast. Pastor John is safely back home from the Middle East. Thank you for

00:03:09.440 | your prayers for his trip. We will be back soon with all new episodes, so

00:03:13.360 | please continue to email your questions into us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.

00:03:16.800 | You can visit us online at DesiringGod.org to find thousands of

00:03:20.920 | books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper, all free of

00:03:24.320 | charge. I'm your host Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening.

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