The difference between Home-Making and House-Keeping

I like to sew in the morning hours before my little ones wake up in the morning. I love listening to talks off the LDS Church website. The talks I listened to this morning were so awesome! I did not attend the World Wide Leadership Training this year; so I learned this morning that I missed out on a ton of really neat stuff! The section on Building a Righteous Posterity was so awesome! It gave me a ton of hope in regards to my role as a Mommy in our Heavenly Father's plan. It made me rethink my battle plan in regards to my decision to be a "home-maker". My view of "home-making" has changed.

Okay... so this is my favorite part...We were taught in these talks that there is a major difference between Home-Making and House-keeping. Home-Making is making or creating an atmosphere that allows the Spirit to reside and allows and encourages our children to learn those things that will help them build confidence and testimonies of our Savior and our Heavenly Father's plan. House-keeping on the other hand is what we do to keep our homes orderly and clean like the list above in our title of this Mommy Blog. I am so glad that I was taught this morning to look at it in a new light.

Home-making is something that is a shared responsibility. Our husbands, if we have one, are also responsible to do their best to help "make" our homes more like Heaven on Earth. Our homes can be a place of refuge for our children. Some of us may not be currently married due to a variety of reasons be they divorce or widowhood, etc; but we all have a responsibility, and are promised blessings if we do so, to "make" our homes conducive to the Spirit and learning the gospel principles the best way we know how in the situation that we are in. I learned this morning that there is a pattern that we should try to achieve...the "perfect" example of a family in God's plan. I learned that the perfect Family is not a family without problems or challenges; but it is the Family that is striving everyday to do their best with what they have to keep God's Commandments and follow the Spirit! It isn't being the ideal perfect family...it is the desire and the effort we put forth that bring us closer to perfection. The talks explain this way better then I ever could. Go Listen!

We can come up with our own battle plans to "create" such homes through prayer, scripture study and by listening to the Spirit. I thought this was really neat. Do you have any further ideas or insights to this topic? Please share.