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In regards to stay-at-home wives, do you think it is OK for a wife to work outside the home if her husband losses his job or has a disability?
I'm curious how a family, especially with more than one wife, could be able to pay the bills without the husband being able to work. Even if a family lives off the grid, I would think one member of the family would still have to work to pay the bills?
I think a clear eyed look at Proverbs 31 is clear that a godly woman can most definitely generate income and interact with men in that capacity. All of those examples though show the woman in a situation without a male head other than her husband. That's just principle though. There is no direct commands on the issue.
First, what Zec said. There is no biblical rule against women working outside the home, and how that works economically and practically, and what the risks and rewards and costs and benefits appear to be are all within the husband's discretion.
However, not exactly answering your question as much as riffing on it, I strongly recommend to any family pursuing a biblical lifestyle that you build a family business. Figure out some way for everybody to work on the same team to put bread on the table. If anybody wants to pursue that aspect of this discussion, let's start another thread.
When life sometimes throws curve balls is always a good idea to stop and think what Scripture really is saying. I mean I know that the Word is good through all time and that up until the late 1950s most women stayed home; however, there was a lot of "community living" at that time in neighborhoods and within the "church". Nowadays, where I live, neighbors don't even know each other, the government has taken over providing food and emergency fund assistance in which the "church" use to provide. I remember a time before the government started handing out this type of assistance, the pastor I worked for would always want to talk to the person before just giving out a hand out. Things are not like that anymore. So without "church" and "neighbors", I'd say life would be hard if financial assistance was only being provided by the husband. In large families there are always unforeseen medical expenses as well even with insurance coverage. The co-pays can be horrible.
There was a time in this country when people owned a place outright and grew and made most of what they needed. They didn't have all our 'conveniences' but they could do that on 40 acres, neither parent needed to work, and they all had intact families. What little cash they needed came from selling eggs, a few steers, or pigs in the fall. They didn't have 'jobs'. Debt was rare. Corporations didn't exist. Insurance wasn't a thing and the doctor made house calls. The community thrived.
There was a time in this country when people owned a place outright and grew and made most of what they needed. They didn't have all our 'conveniences' but they could do that on 40 acres, neither parent needed to work, and they all had intact families. What little cash they needed came from selling eggs, a few steers, or pigs in the fall. They didn't have 'jobs'. Debt was rare. Corporations didn't exist. Insurance wasn't a thing and the doctor made house calls. The community thrived.
Exactly where I’m headed bro! That’s it right there!
I’m going to give THIS life to my children’s children I pray! Can’t stand the thought of my boys growing up just to jump into the hampster wheel of working for the man!
Somethings a bit off when a mans gotta work 70+ hours a week to barely house and feed his family he never sees!!!!!!
Exactly where I’m headed bro! That’s it right there!
I’m going to give THIS life to my children’s children I pray! Can’t stand the thought of my boys growing up just to jump into the hampster wheel of working for the man!
Somethings a bit off when a mans gotta work 70+ hours a week to barely house and feed his family he never sees!!!!!!
It starts with getting out of debt. Which means sacrificing the luxuries now so the next generation can have a future. I look at Abraham when he planted a Tamarisk Tree. Genesis 21:30-34 "He said, “You are to accept the seven ewe-lambs from my hand, so that they may be a witness for me that I dug this well.” That is why that place is named Beer-sheba, because there both of them made a pledge, and they made a covenant in Beer-sheba. Then Abimelech got up, with Phicol the commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines. Then he planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba and called there on the Name of Adonai, the Everlasting Elohim. He lived as an outsider in the land of the Philistines for many days". A tamarisk tree is a slow growing tree, increasing only an inch per year and taking close to 400 years to grow to full height. Its evergreen leaves collect water vapor from the moisture in the air during the night, and when the sun radiates its heat, the droplets evaporate and produce a cooling system. It is an outdoor air conditioning unit for the blistering desert heat. Future generation would enjoy it but Abraham had no expectation to.
Next comes getting as close to self sufficient as we possibly can, which includes not being beholden to an employer for finical stability. We were getting there. We had 36 acres grew, raised, hunted and fished about 90% of what we ate. We could have probably done 100% if we were willing to give up luxuries like coffee and tea and the convenience of dinning out if we were out late. My wife and I joined the volunteer fire department to get ems training. It added a lot to BCT triage. We wore a lot of wool, not good in the Texas summer but made excellent winter clothes. My grandmother and wife made most of our summer clothes from bolts we bought a cost but cheaper than buying them. I collected scrap metal (paid to haul it off most of the time) and made tools when I needed extra cash. Demoed old barns (got paid to do that and haul off the wood) and used the salvaged wood to make furniture, mainly toy chest and the like for extra cash. we made beet sugar, mule stomp, canned our own food. Sold goats, chickens, and cows to a local butcher (a dying breed) and eggs, extra produce, goats milk, goat cheese (had to label the milk and cheese as dog food because they weren't pasteurized and inspected) and preserves at a local farmers market. Which reminds me make sure you have wills and trust to protect your families when you pass. We all want to rely on our family holding onto the values we instill in them but if you leave the adversary an opening he will take it, and we all know "the lust for wealth is the root of all types of evil".
By making connections and through fellowship with others who are doing the same, preferably those who specialize in what you don't. This gives us a chance to make dream a reality. Finally trust in Adonai. If its His will for you to separate yourself out he will provide the opportunities to do so. This type of freedom will make life as a plural family even more conceivable.
Kevin said it, get out of debt and give up the luxuries. Most of us could cut between $750 to a $1,000 a month between our cellphones and automobiles and that's not even touching eating out, clothes or entertainment. For the record some of you have seen my cars, there's not a $1,000 a decade there.
In regards to stay-at-home wives, do you think it is OK for a wife to work outside the home if her husband losses his job or has a disability?
I'm curious how a family, especially with more than one wife, could be able to pay the bills without the husband being able to work. Even if a family lives off the grid, I would think one member of the family would still have to work to pay the bills?
I have been blessed with a stay at home wife for a long time. I think Titus 2:5 is excellent advice, but I think Paul is talking about the general case here. Special cases are different. Each family has to do what it has to do to survive. So even if a family has a value of a wife being a homemaker they may have to give that up to make ends meet. Far better to do that then to rely on the government or others.
However, do not forget to think outside the box. We think sort of binary, with the nuclear family, but another solution is hinted at in another thread: multi-generational living. If you have two or three generations of men living in the house, then if one goes down, it is not automatic that the wife will have to give up homemaking.
Another possibility is a home-based business.
Read: "Mary Emma and Company" by Ralph Moody who wrote the more famous "Little Britches". Wonderful story of a mother of a large family struggling to make ends meet and be self sufficient after her husband passed too early.
Back to the OP, which was addressing the need for provision when a husband is disabled or temporarily unemployed, I don't think the age of the kids matters to the family's need for basic provision. IOW, as I read the OP, there's a concern that there's some rule about stay-at-home wives that causes a problem when the breadwinner male is incapacitated. My answer being no.
That's a Love Actually ref; guess I'm in a weird mood. "My" answer isn't the issue, but IMO Zec already gave the biblical answer and we're all just plussing it.
Meanwhile, with a family business, women and kids of appropriate age can be incorporated into the team, so becoming disabled or unemployed may provide a perfect opportunity for the husband to reconsider the whole "male breadwinner" model. And those who are not disabled or unemployed (yet) may want to consider a family-business-as-'side-hustle' as a hedge against future contingencies or as a way to transition from being separated from your family 40-80 hrs/wk into working together for the common good. Lots to like about the "family as breadwinning team" model....
