As a wife, mother, or homemaker one of your most important jobs is being the gatekeeper of your home. You have the ability to change the entire atmosphere based on what you allow inside it. You can change it from hectic to peaceful, toxic to clean, unhealthy to nourishing. Or you can let your guard down and allow it to change for the worse.
As homemakers, wives, and mothers one of our most important jobs is being the gatekeeper of our home. What does that mean? It means that you are in charge of what comes into your home. What food your family eats. Or what products your family uses and what you use to clean your house. And what your family uses for entertainment.
You have the ability to change the entire atmosphere and environment of your home depending on what you allow inside it. You can change it from hectic to peaceful, toxic to clean, unhealthy to nourishing. Or you can let your guard down and allow it to change for the worse.
Our culture will be changed one household and one family at a time. What we allow in our homes plays a huge role in that. Don’t take your job as gatekeeper lightly.
But how do we do that? What do we need to do to become good gatekeepers of our homes? Of course the details of that role will vary between households. No two families are the same or need the exact same things to thrive. But I think there are several things that all homemakers need to do as the gatekeepers of their home.
how to be a good gatekeeper of your home
one- bringing in real, whole foods
One of the biggest and most basic ways you can be a good gatekeeper of your home is by bringing in and cooking with real, whole foods. What we feed our families makes a huge difference in their physical, mental, and emotional health, and therefore their outlook on life. I truly believe the state of our county is partly due to the state of our diet. The standard American diet is terrible to put it bluntly. It’s full of processed foods, seed oils, and things that shouldn’t even be called food. It is severely lacking in nutrients, and therefore most Americans are severely lacking in nutrients.
We don’t just need to be nourished well in order to be physically healthy. But we also need to be nourished well to develop properly, have good mental & emotional health, and to create good and healthy babies who also develop properly while in the womb. One of my favorite podcasts is the Wise Traditions podcast which comes from the Weston A. Price foundation (another great resource for real food). They (fairly) recently had an episode on how diet can affect hormones and reproductive system development so much that it could be the cause of the whole transgender epidemic we’re seeing in America.
There’s also a ton of research showing that our diets greatly affect our mental health. That seems to be common sense in my opinion, but so many people don’t seem to realize that. Mental health is also a huge issue in our country right now, but everyone is so quick to take prescription medication and not think about how their diet is probably causing their poor mental health.
So, all that to say, a huge way to be a good gatekeeper of your home is to make sure you’re bringing in good food that will nourish your family well. We have the ability to change our family’s health for the better, and may even have the ability to cause transgenderism and gender dysphoria if we aren’t careful.
Here are some of my favorite resources for learning about real food and quality nourishment:
- Wise Traditions Podcast
- Fully Nourished Podcast
- The Weston A. Price Foundation
- Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
- How to Heal Your Metabolism by Kate Deering
- Deep Nutrition by Catherine Shanahan
two- what products you use
The products we use in our house are also a huge way we can be good gatekeepers of our homes. So many of the products we use today are filled with potentially toxic chemicals. These chemicals can affect and cause things like allergies, asthma, migraines, development issues, eczema and other skin issues, neurological issues, and hormone/reproductive issues. These are all things that are so prevalent in our country, especially among kids. There have been a lot of cases in which parents have removed conventional products from their home and saw a huge improvement in their children’s conditions.
That was even the case for me. I used to struggle with really bad allergies almost all year long. When I switched my candles out for essential oils, got rid of all my products with fragrance, and changed out mostly all of my conventional products to non-toxic versions, my allergies improved so much. I still got them in the spring and fall, but they weren’t nearly as bad, and also didn’t come around all year long.
So, in order to take care of our homes and our families well, we need to make sure we are using good products that aren’t causing more harm than good. This includes fragrances, cleaning products, hygiene products, laundry detergent, and more. My favorite place to get good quality, clean ingredients is Young Living. They are a one-stop-shop for all things non-toxic and natural. I love that ordering from them takes the guess work out. I can trust that what I’m getting is safe and clean, and I don’t have to take the time to do the research myself. I’m part of their loyalty program as well which means I get points back with my monthly order that I can use in the future on whatever I want.
Here are some of my favorite clean products from Young Living:
- Essential Oils
- Essential Oil Blends
- All Purpose Cleaner Concentrate
- Laundry Soap
- Kitchen & Bath Scrub
- Toothpaste
- Dishwasher Powder
- Hand Soap
three- the type of entertainment you allow
The third way that you can be a good gatekeeper of your home is through what type of entertainment you allow. We are greatly shaped by the things we take in. That’s especially true for kids. I don’t have kids yet, but I’ve heard so many stories of kids starting to act like the characters on the shows they watch. In some cases, this can be good. Some shows are great for character development. But others can be detrimental and cause your kids to have bad attitudes.
It’s also true for adults. The things we fill our minds with can quickly shape our worldview. If we fill our mind with trashy music or shows, we will start to justify those things in our lives. We have to be sure to fill our homes with good things. Things that we want to shape us. That includes good shows, good books, good music. And most importantly it includes Scripture, hymns, and Psalms.
Most people probably don’t consider those things entertainment. But to me, entertainment includes all the things we fill our minds with. And so, the best type of entertainment is something that points us to Christ. That doesn’t mean we can’t ever watch or read things that aren’t specifically related to Christianity, but we do need to be careful with what we put our focus on.