Homemaking: A multidimensional Management Position.

Homemaking is a management position. It required innovation, focus, dedication, and persistence. As a homemaker, your mission is to care for your family unit’s individual and collective needs. Homemaking is a multidimensional undertaking that requires skill and expertise in a wide variety of areas. No small task, right?

All I have to do is anticipate, outline, and execute a plan that allows for the development and well-being of all of the members of my family—sure, no problem.

Take heart; while the management of a home can seem overwhelming, a thoughtful plan can help you feel more confident about where to start and how to ensure a happy and well-managed home for you and your family.

Creating a well-managed home is a bit like following a recipe. Even the most complex recipe will turn out well if you have a good recipe (plan), quality ingredients, and clear instructions. And with a bit of practice and persistence, a good recipe becomes a great recipe.

So, like any good cook, let’s begin by gathering our ingredients.

Ingredient Number One: Become A Good Receiver

If you want to devote your life to the care and well-being of others (your family in particular), you first must understand the principle of humble dependence on our Heavenly Father. As Christ admonished his followers at the Last Supper, our ability to love others is dependent upon our ability to fully understand God’s love for us. We can only love others to the degree to which we have experienced, for ourselves, the depth of God’s love for us.

“I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too are to love one another.”  ~ John 13:34 (Amp).

We can only teach, lead, love, encourage, and equip to the level of maturity we have embraced through Christ. True leadership begins with a desire to implement in ourselves all that we desire for others. When we allow ourselves to be filled with the goodness of God, when we receive from Him the abundance of His love for us, our ability to pour ourselves into the lives of others becomes effortless. In other words, if we aspire to create a happy, delicious, and fragrant home, we begin by filling our own cup before attempting to fill others. Full cups produce abundance, but an empty cup can produce all kinds of discontent and resentment.

Ingredient Number Two: Spiritual Fitness 

Ingredient number two is similar to our first ingredient in that its focus is on our own character development as a prerequisite to developing a well-managed home. Undoubtedly, the attention we devote to becoming deeply acquainted with and personally attuned to the voice of the Holy Spirit is the most productive principle we can adopt. By allowing ourselves to be Spirit-led, by allowing all of the fullness of Christ that dwells in our spirit to transform our thinking, our emotions, our conscience, and our imagination, we progressively become influential reflections of His Light. Spiritual fitness produces fitness in all of the other areas of our lives. It is a fundamental ingredient that reaps enormous benefits. Especially if our calling involves the care and development of others.

For myself, the time I spend first thing in the morning, deep in the Word of God, talking to my Father and listening to the directive voice of the Holy Spirit, is the most critical aspect of my life. Everything I am is a reflection of the degree to which I allow myself to receive and then reflect the nature of God. When I add this ingredient, everything else downstream suddenly comes into alignment, and the flow from Him through me becomes the life source I can pass on to my husband, my children, and my community.

“I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses inner strength into me. I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency.”  ~ Philippians 4:13  

Ingredient Number Three: Living At Rest 

We live in a crazy, busy world. The frenetic pace to which our culture ascribes has become alarming. Everyone seems to be in fast-forward mode, ever pushing toward greater acceleration and productivity. It’s exhausting, but not mandatory.

Maintaining a well-balanced home can quickly degrade into a never-ending list of to-dos. Cooking, cleaning, financial concerns, children, and activities can inadvertently create an atmosphere of hurry and frustration. So how can you stay on top of the many aspects of your home while maintaining the peace and stability you desire for yourself and your family?

The ability to live at rest, in the midst of the whirling dervish, is primarily a shift in mindset. It is a choice to live an unhurried and less frenetic life, even when the world around you insists that the road to success is paved with busyness and productivity.

Developing a calm, non-reactive, and peaceful spirit begins with the pursuit of harmony. Harmonious people are peaceful people. Peace with God begets peace in myself, which begets peace with others. When I adopt an attitude of internal well-being, harmony, and peace, the external expression of these attributes is a less hurried, tense, or agitated way of being. When our lives become anxious and unsettled, it is usually as a result of having lost our internal sense of peace. God will never give you more to do than you can do peacefully. If your doing has exceeded your well-being, it may be time to recalibrate and reassess the expectations you have placed on yourself and others.

“So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath-rest reserved for the true people of God. For he who has once entered God’s rest also has ceased from the weariness and pain of human labors, just as God rested from those labors peculiarly His own. Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest of God.”  ~Hebrews 4:9-11 (Amp).

Ingredient Number Four: Define Your Purpose 

This ingredient could seem obvious for the woman who has decided to embrace the role of a homemaker. There is probably a fair amount of consistency among homemakers about what the job entails. But I encourage you to look deeper than the most prominent attributes of your calling. While homemaking and the development of a well-managed home are indeed a central part of your purpose, there is a more dominant role that we can sometimes overlook or take for granted.

Our most immediate purpose, for those who embrace faith, is to act as Christ’s ambassadors or personal representatives. For all believers, this is our first and most compelling responsibility. So, whether you are a man or a woman, and before we apply ourselves to our particular or unique expression of faith, our primary calling is to steward the ministry of reconciliation.

To accomplish that goal, we focus on our duty to progressively become more fully acquainted with and reflective of God’s nature, through Christ, and the leading of the Holy Spirit. To know God is to reflect God. As a result of this focus, God, through the Holy Spirit, will begin, as you learn more, study more, and listen more intently, to further define your gifts and callings.

“But all things are from God. Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself, (received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself) and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him.”  ~ II Corinthians 5:18 (Amp).

Ingredient Number Five: Prioritize Relationships 

As created beings, reflective of the image of God, we are fundamentally relational. We need and rely on relational connections for emotional, mental, and spiritual health. When we become cut off or isolated, our sense of ourselves, our value, and our worth can be called into question.

As a homemaker, the need to stay relationally connected is vital. Because the nature of the homemaker role is primarily a servant’s role, it is imperative to develop and maintain supportive and encouraging relational bonds. We were made for connection. When we become isolated, it is easy for self-doubt and loneliness to impact our influence.

Women, by nature, tend to be more nurturing and attentive to the needs of others. However, this tendency can often lead to an over-focus on the duties of our calling and the neglect of our relational need to connect and bond with family, friends, and our community. Relational connection is an essential ingredient of a well-managed home. Make sure you regularly make the time to seek encouragement and support outside of your home. A healthy environment requires both inflow and outflow.

“He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” ~Ephesians 4:16 (NLT). 

Ingredient Number Six: Eat Real Food 

When I was growing up, my mother was the original health food enthusiast, long before organic, gluten-free, and other specific eating protocols came into being. Having been raised in a farming community, our diet was typically a bounty of fresh food straight from the garden, hen-house, or pasture. I feel fortunate that the fundamental aspects of healthy eating were established in my childhood. The idea that we are what we eat came naturally for me and continues to serve me well as an adult.

That being said, the challenge to eat healthy has become progressively complex. Food modification, pesticides, additives, and over-processing have made the road to a healthy diet a bit precarious, but never more important. As a homemaker intent on developing and maintaining a well-managed home, providing healthy food and real food for your family can become a real challenge—and time-management issue.

It takes time to plan, cook, and serve real food, which is often indicative of having prepared the food from scratch. And while the full exploration of this topic cannot be achieved within the context of one rather lengthy blog post, it is a subject worthy of particular note. The quality of the fuel consumed will dictate the health of the human vehicle.

So here is my quick and dirty rule for providing meals designed to provide health, comfort, and a sense of home – try to serve food as close to its natural state as possible. Just as the recipe of any dish is dependent on the quality of the ingredients, the ingredients of real food are dependent on maintaining the integrity of the food being prepared. Broccoli should still be broccoli on the table; an egg, an egg, and chicken should still be distinguishable as chicken, not some kind of mystery meat.

Good health begins with good food.

Ingredient Number Seven: Never Stop Moving 

My grandmother, Nanny or Nan, was a wealth of common sense and knowledge. I should write a book someday as a compilation of all the life lessons I learned on the farm and in her kitchen. One of the most influential lessons I ever learned from her was an off-handed comment she made one day while we were gathering eggs from the henhouse. “Teresa, she said, The secret to life is never to stop moving.” 

At that point in time, my eight-year-old self didn’t quite understand the wisdom of her simple statement. I was eight; perpetual motion was a given. I couldn’t comprehend a life without movement. Being on the go was just part of life. So, I just agreed with her and placed her advice on a back shelf. I figured if I ever needed it, it would still be there.

Now, Several Decades Later, I Get It.

How easy it would be to allow my days to be sedentary. I’ve reached a point in my life where movement can be painful. It is instinctual to want to limit movement when you are not quite as flexible as you were as a child. As I replay that moment in the henhouse with my grandmother, I am more appreciative of the wisdom of her simple declaration. In hindsight, Nan would have been in her early seventies when she and I had that interaction. A seventyish farm woman admonishing an eight-year-old about the intent and value of maintaining an active lifestyle.

I can’t tell you how often my mind has replayed that interaction when I am tempted to give in, avoid, or delay movement. Mentally, I can almost hear my eight-year-old self telling me to remember Nan’s advice and keep it moving, stay engaged, resist the urge to do less, and sit out.

Active participation and movement take effort. We have to choose to stay engaged, to move, to participate. It is the last item on our ingredient list, but it is a vital aspect of a rich and fulfilling life as a homemaker and the curator of a well-managed home.

So there we have it—the Seven ingredients of a well-managed home. Be a good receiver, maintain your spiritual fitness, live at rest, define your purpose, prioritize relationships, eat real food, and never stop moving.

As a primary leader and manager of your home, incorporating these seven ingredients into your life will strengthen and expand the toolkit you will need to manage your personal well-being and that of your family effectively. Our growth becomes the foundation for the growth of our families. As we mature, so will the other members of the family.

To learn more about Common Sense Homemaking, make sure you subscribe to our email list. Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments below. I love hearing from you!

Heart-peace and love to you all.

Teresa

Read More: 

Looking for additional support for the homemaking role? You may find the following article helpful. 

I Believe: The Homemakers Creed.

About Common Sense Homemaking 

Originally published under Chrysalis Connections, LLC, and updated in 2026 as part of the Natural Relational Health Institute rebranding and expansion.