Feminine Economics
By: Susan Deborah Schiller
"How do you make your money," people sometimes ask me. In "Innocence Restored" I share all the jobs I once worked. In "Christian Economics 101" I shared how being a job slave, even to Christian employers, has created oppression, for many.
I like working hard and I enjoy earning a paycheck, but I've been searching for an alternative lifestyle – one in which I can still be a wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, and grandmother. I want to be present for my family. I want to nourish my family with love, attention, and face-to-face time. For that, I need the most precious commodity of all: Time + Energy.
Money = Time + Energy
Maybe what I am, do, and have is as valuable as money. I am not an economist, theologian, or even a bookkeeper, so all I can share is my own little story.
I have something that is more powerful than money in the bank. I have faith, and it's said that faith is the currency of heaven. My faith is still small, but it's growing.
Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith. – 2 Corinthians 13:5
In the world's system we tend to measure our success in numbers. Numbers of followers, numbers of clients, numbers of church members, dollars and cents.
I have been behind the scenes of local churches and large, international ministries. I can tell you for a fact, we talk more about money than we do about faith.
Money is important. I'm not opposed to earning it, saving it, and spending it. Money is not evil; greed, or the love of money, is what causes the most pain in our world. It causes wars. Greed is responsible for the crash of all that is holy, right, and true.
I want to have more so I can give more, do more, and enjoy life. I want to be like this "Lady Liberty" who is striding with courage, strength and dignity into a New Day, extending her gift into the future.
Most of today's money is just an illusion. Reach into your wallet and pull out those paper bills. Our paper and electronic money is no longer backed by gold, and if rumors are true, Fort Knox is empty! We're facing an economic collapse that will likely take place in my lifetime.
I want to do something to change the direction I've been headed, to create a new family legacy. I'm not sure how it will all work out, yet, but I'm learning day-by-day.
For me, the bottom line, as I begin to reinvent my life, is quality of life. It began with a dream, as most of my life changes and moves have happened. It was a dream about personal economics. I needed a job. A man who lived in a hotel needed homemade bread. I became his baker, delivering bread to his hotel, in exchange for a liveable wage. God showed me the dream, to build my faith for what was possible. And as I began to sow into the dream with my thoughts, my faith grew, and such a man did show up in my life.
When I married my husband, he had never before been married. Like most people, he was eating mainly processed food and wanted to begin living a healthier lifestyle. While he's totally capable of cooking and baking for himself (he's amazing in the kitchen), he has allowed me to research, gather recipes, and begin cooking foods that heal our bodies.
I'm learning to do things ancient women of the past have done, in creating a nourishing atmosphere. I make fermented foods, like Kombucha Tea, which are known for their medicinal value. I make Liposomal Vitamin C, which in New Zealand and other parts of the world is considered a valuable medine. I make homemade soups and stews, using nutritious beans and whole foods. I also make our own laundry detergent, which works as good or better than leading detergents on the market.
These commodities cost just pennies compared to hugely inflated retail prices. It all adds up. We save several hundred dollars a month, not including fewer medical visits and less prescriptions.
There are other savings, as well. Transportation, for one. I don't have to invest in money to commute back and forth to work, along with maintenance for a car. Clothing and fashion accessories are a second source of savings, when there are no work clothes and uniforms or dress codes to follow. Also taxes: Less dollars earned mean less taxes owed. We saved a couple thousand this past year, in taxes alone.
Beyond savings, I have to believe that radical homemakers are making a healthy impact on our homes, communities and churches.
If I grow my own food, we save money but also have fresher meals. If I sew my own clothes, I am not empowering a system that forces slaves to produce low-cost textiles while laboring in inhumane conditions.
When I count our savings, it's beginning to make sense, but I still have a long way to go, because my goal is to earn a mobile, flexible income, on top of the savings, because my values are to be there for my family, who live from state-to-state.
I believe the family is the backbone of society and that wives, mothers, and all of the women who love homemaking are the HEART of our society's survival!
- When my daughter's lung collapsed, I'm grateful I was able to be there for her, and to care for her daughter.
- When my son's truck broke down, I'm glad I could take a few days to pick him up and transport him to his job out of state.
- When my mother's heart stopped on the surgeon's table and she ended up on life support, in a coma, I'm glad I could take a few months to care for her.
- When my step-dad died, I'm glad I could be there for weeks instead of days.
- When readers ask for someone to listen to their stories, to help bear their burdens and I can say, "Yes, let's meet on Skype."
- This year, my granddaughter will be spending the summer with me, and I can't tell you how much JOY that gives me! And it helps out her mom, too.
Is a life less valuable because they spend their time with the suffering? I think of Mother Theresa, as I speak. I know I'm only a small shadow of that great vessel, but is it a wasted life, to serve the poor, knowing you can't make a lot of money doing it?
What is the value of a wife and mother, a grandmother or an aunt? Can we place a dollar on her head, as the slave owners in our countries history have done?
I believe a new type of "femininism" is rising, to present to us the feminine nature of God – in our churches, homes, and communities.
A woman is the heart of the family, even as man is the head. And the family is the backbone of society. I'm daring to believe that God will make a way for me to serve and to save and to give.
I believe it's time, on International Women's Day – March 8, 2014 – to honor the value of all women, not just wives and mothers, in our world.
Women, as a picture of the femine side of God, are bringing amazing benefits to our world, to our economy. We are creating opportunities to collaborate, instead of compete, We are encouraging and equipping one another to rise up, instead of climbing on each other's heads up the corporate ladder of success and power. We are promoting equality.
Equality doesn't mean women should act more like men. Nor, should men take on feminine roles. I believe it means we honor our gender roles and allow this rise of the feminime nature of God to bring balance to our chaotic world systems, including the economy.
Maybe this shaking of the patriarachal system is making way for a new matriarchy, symbolizing the head and heart of our collective soul coming into alignment. I salute the women who are leading this movement, which I believe is a revolution of love.
What do you think?
Living the adventure and choosing love today,
Sue
Susan Schiller's life mission is to help rescue and restore those trapped in perpectual nightmares. Through activations in mini memoir writing she teaches us how to create our world. It's like discovering a spiritual blueprint within our childhood memories and using it to rewrite our future with God's Truth. A new family legacy is published, blessing the next generation.
In her past life, Susan has served in duties ranging from home school mom – to pastor – to full-time deliverance minister – and to Midwest regional prayer coordinator for a large international ministry. These days you can usually find Susan soaking in nature, reading a book (or several), blogging, baking bread, or hanging out with her family and friends. You can get a free copy of Susan's upcoming book, "On the Way Home" by registering here.
Copyright 2010-2014, Susan Schiller, http://TeamFamilyOnline.com. For reprint permission for any private or commercial use, in any form of media, please contact Susan Schiller.
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I just finished writing a post about money as well…same energy. 😉
When I quit my high profile career job to stay home and raise my son, I lost more than money. I lost relationships with family that didn't support us. It was baffling and healing all in one. And I agree with you, it's not a common walk. When I share with older career friends what we live off of, they are amazed that they make more than we do and can barely make ends meet.
While money is needed to pay the necessary bills, I too, have found ways around the over inflated prices. I trade services. I use FreeCycle. I buy at the farmer's markets and consignment shops. We don't go out to eat much. We buy only what we need and sell what we don't.
For us, living with less money has meant living in more goodness, more blessings, and more abundance money could ever provide.
Great truths, Susan, again, so happy to be reading.
What an encouraging testimony, Aubrey, of real living… “less money has meant living in more godness, more blessings, and more abundance money could ever provide” – that is a quote I want to remember!
You’re a great blessing – thanks, Aubrey!
I read this today, and it says how I feel about "The Joy of Quitting":
The Joy of Quitting
It seems that every time I turn around these days, someone I know is quitting their job. Have they suddenly inherited money? Are they nuts? Neither. They've decided that there has to be a better way to make living. I've been there myself more than once.
Our jobs take up a lot of our waking hours and are the central need around which much of the rest of our lives revolve. When they suck, it sucks the life right out of us. The money we're making seems to cost an awful lot. Now, these ladies haven't just woken up one day and thought "I can't do this anymore" and that was that. They woke up thinking it for much longer than is good for a person, agonized, rationalized, and had moments of panic that sent them scurrying back into the arms of their employer like some kind of abused spouse. They had conversations with their actual (non abusive) spouses if they had them, their kids, their parents, their bank managers or accountants. They put plans in place to cope with their losses, or put together something new that might, one day , replace their old income.
Then they acted, even though they were still scared to bits, because they recognized that no-one is ever 100% certain but, at a certain point, the unknown becomes way more attractive than the known. — To read more
Thank you for writing this. It confirmed the direction the Lord gave me.
Thank you!
Wow… I’d love to hear more! It’s not a common walk 🙂
I was writing paper for a class and I began a section on the wisdom of "home economics".
I never thought of the difference between maculine and feminine ways of looking at economys.
Your thoughts remind me of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/song-birds-of-passage-flight-the-fifth/
Thanks again–Julie
Hi Julie,
Longfellow’s poem speaks of a place I never want to leave – Home – no matter where I may be in the world, no matter how many times and places I travel to. Home, I believe is a state of being – of being centered in our soul and in God – but also a place we nourish relationships.
Our society has been heavier on the masculine side of economics, and to compete, women have lost our sense of connection to homemaking being one of the most important contributions we can make to society. I’d love to hear more about your paper – and the thoughts you have for wisdom about home economics!
Thanks so much for being here, Julie – blessings!
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