With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, America’s gender roles as defined in the Bible were forever altered, I believe, for the worse.  Men who were once leaders and guides to their wives and children became stressed primary breadwinners, leaving women behind at home to tend to the homestead alone.  The rift between created gender roles and reality developed into a wide chasm with the onslaught of feminism in the sixties and seventies.  As a child of the seventies, I can tell you it has taken at least two decades and a miracle of God to reinvent my thinking about how family, as a pillar of society, ought to function.  The poem below was written last week in hopes of revealing to other families that there is a true cost involved in pursuing the “dual-income” American Dream. 

We need to allow God back into our minds and allow Him to transform our homes subsequently, before any real change is going to occur in society as it is now, but I believe that it is possible to redeem what has been lost to the problems we see today.  These have been created by the androgynous blend of gender roles that we have accepted with women seeking fulfillment by trying to become men in the workplace, and fatherlessness contributing to forty percent of children growing up alone because their mothers are at work, trying desperately to be mother and father. 

For those who say it is not possible to live on a single income any longer, I say it is a choice.  Just as love is a choice, living frugally and wisely in an all-about-me society is a choice.  A married couple with a child can choose to remain renters instead of home buyers until they are able to buy a home without causing Mom to leave the children in day-orphanages for a hefty penny.  Ten year old vehicles that are properly maintained can take the place of “new every two” car payments that have become a way of life these days.  It can be done.  It must be done if the next generation is to learn to live selflessly and parent their children, while remaining married to their child’s respective parent for a lifetime.

I believe if we returned to roles as defined in Genesis chapter one and three, we would be amazed at the change in society.  Enjoy the poem, and ponder the repurcussions of allowing our Creator to redeem us to true men and women as He created us to be!

Three chapters of Genesis and Titus two?

Why, that’s Testament Old AND Testament New!

Those words aren’t for us, Babe, the times-they have changed…

Women and men, our roles re-arranged.

So, stop asking for sexy, ‘cause I’ve got to rest…

I’ve no energy left, my JOB gets my best!

You say you want chicken with Mac and with cheese?

No time for that, Love, I’ve a Boss to appease.

Do the dishes real tidy now, won’t you my Honey?

I’ll be home quite late, why, I’ve got to earn money!

Yes, I earned quite a bit and how I’d love to share,

But this morning I gave every bit to Day Care!

One income won’t do in our cities today;

The God of the Bible we have cast away…

After all, He can’t possibly do what He said,

And provide & make sure that our families are fed

Through the hard work & discipline of good, humble men

Who follow Him, wanting to cast aside sin.

What folly to think that somehow He faltered –

The plans for our genders, somehow he altered –

I’m making a plea and I hope you do read,

If you want dual incomes, it’ll cost you indeed…

But if it’s a Helpmeet you want as your Bride,

I’ll be right there with you, standing firm by your side.