Trad wife.

Homeschool Mom.

Boss girl. 

The options for what kind of woman you will be and what kind of mold you will fill are there for the taking, and as Christian women desiring to glorify God, it can be far too easy to look to formulas and methods as our hope rather than our formulas and methods flowing out of who we are in Christ and where He has placed us. 

Say you’re a Christian who is new wife and a new mom. How can you be faithful? Should you make bread like that lady? Should you wear dresses like this lady? Should you go makeup free? Should you wear lots of makeup and get manicures? Should you stop using seed oils? Should you learn to sew or plant a garden?

Are you doing anything right?

Are you doing everything wrong?!?

Enter the HOUSE DESPOT.

This is already weird, you might be thinking. Another label to slap on my identity, but this one sounds even more strange and fringe and far-right than the rest. Like something a MAGA fanatic might have embroidered and bedazzled on a trucker hat.

But stay with me. 

In Titus 2:5, Paul describes what the older women are to teach the younger women, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

And in 1 Timothy 5:14, while giving various instructions to the church, he urges the younger widows to marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.

Instructions like these have probably caused women to chafe since they were first penned, and the principles behind them for even longer, but whenever that is the case, a severe lack of imagination and a gross misunderstanding of who God even is are most certainly at play.

Sure, you can make those texts say what you want them to say, that Paul is trying to keep women unhappily chained up in their houses, doing menial and thankless labor for “the patriarchy”.

But what can it actually mean to be a worker at home?

We’re going to make this really fun and look at that text from 1 Timothy in its original language: “Manage their households”.

Oikodespoteo.

From “oikos”, meaning HOUSE, and “despotēs”, where we get the word DESPOT.

Yes, you read that right.

HOUSE DESPOT!!!

I don’t know about you, but the idea of being a HOUSE DESPOT of my very own domain sounds like maybe the coolest thing that could ever happen to a person.

Now examine all the biblical texts written to women through THIS lens… “I’m a HOUSE DESPOT!!” …instead of the feminist-laced drivel that is readily available from angry libs on Twitter, and what you will clearly see is that there is a huge scope of work for women to enjoy in the home, work that is profitable and fun, work that is dignified and ancient, work that will bring blessing upon blessing to the woman, to her husband, to her children, to her community, and to the generations who will come from her line.

Doesn’t sound so oppressive after all, does it??

Quite the opposite, actually.

So consider this first post from this new website to be an invitation.

If you are a specific Christian woman…

(Are you single? Are you a widow? Are you a daughter living in your parents’ home?)

If you are a specific Christian woman married to a specific man…

(Is your husband a pastor in Cincinnati? Is your husband a welder in Texas? Does your husband despise sourdough? Does your husband love gardening and having you help him?)

If you are a specific Christian woman married to a specific man with whom you are raising specific children…

(Are you just starting out with a new baby? Do you have seven kids? Do you have all girls? Are you knee-deep in little boys? Is your firstborn a girl? Is your firstborn a boy? Are you a grandma?)

If you are a specific Christian woman married to a specific man with whom you are raising specific children in a specific place…

(Do you have no support system nearby? Do you live next door to your parents? Do you live in an apartment in a big city? Do you homestead on five acres? Are you a teacher at your kids’ school? Are you a nurse on the weekends? Are you a foreign missionary? Are you a wife and mother living with a chronic disease that keeps you from doing the things you wish you could do?)

You!

All of you!!

YOU CAN BE A HOUSE DESPOT.

Being a house despot is not about the bread you make or don’t make, it’s not about what you wear or how you do your hair or what curriculum you use. It’s not about looking like that mom or that influencer or having that color scheme in your kitchen.

What it IS about is about doing the unique work that is right in front of you in YOUR home, doing it heartily, with your talents and strengths, with and for your specific husband, with and for your specific children, and all for the glory of your very specific God. 

We have a lot of fun posts ahead, and hope you’ll find fuel and imaginative scope for doing your job well. 

Stay tuned for more encouragement, tips, recipes, product reviews, book recommendations, interviews with other house despots, and MORE! Until then, please subscribe below and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and X.