At a Glance
Naomi Smith was a Modern Feminist who thought a woman’s value came from the workplace and from being like a man. After having her first child, however, Naomi realized that Modern Feminism erased the importance and beauty of motherhood and the designed differences between man and woman.
There is far more to motherhood than merely giving birth, and God gave mothers a unique role not just in the family, but in shaping culture and society through their work at home. Join us today as we seek to reexamine God’s design in motherhood through Naomi Smith.
What You'll Hear
Chapter 1: Introducing Naomi Smith (1:22)
- Naomi Smith became a Christian in her senior year of college, and then went into ministry.
- She has 3 kids and has written the book Home Inspired (more information below).
Chapter 2: Naomi’s Journey from Modern Feminism to Eternal Feminism (5:42)
- Naomi’s embrace of modern feminism led her to believe that a woman’s value came from work.
- She pushed back against the idea that women and men are distinct and have distinct roles.
- Becoming a mother carried with it a feeling of entering into indentured servitude, rather than a joyful opportunity to embrace her uniquely created design.
- However, while caring for Judah, Naomi realized that the home was actually a critical place for ministry and discipling the nation.
Chapter 3: The Micro-Nation of the Home (24:13)
- All mothers and wives have an important role to play in managing the micro-nation of the household.
- Mothers have the ability to influence and train the next generation, either in truth or in lies.
- God specially designed mothers to have an extraordinary impact on their kids and on the next generation, and it is a role that should be treated with dignity rather then derision.
Chapter 4: The Importance of Marriage (43:53)
- Naomi talks about how her husband supported her and helped her as she struggled to step into the role of Motherhood.
- Good role models are essential in marriage and in parenthood, and not having good role models or any role models can be really destructive.
- Our culture has completely chipped away at good parenting and marriage so that the only thing left is a negative worldview that is massively corrosive to the family.
- The impact that an individual person can have, particularly in their role as parents, can echo for multiple generations.
Using the link above, you can read the transcript, listen along, and adjust the speed of the podcast while you listen.
Strong nations are built on strong families.
Naomi Smith (1:04:10)
Go Deeper
Home Inspired: A Look at the Micro-Nation of Home for New Moms
Naomi Bloom’s is an amazing life journey. From dance major to radical Jesus follower to single campus minister to wife to mom, Naomi Bloom travels down the road with God distilling life lessons along the way. She does not pretend to have a corner on the market of how to do motherhood “right.” She only knows that her sojourn as a mom has brought out colors of her own heart that she never knew were there.
She also discovers that His design for home is brilliance shrouded in normalcy. She realizes the path of love goes low and her radical love for Jesus only deepens as she slows down enough to truly stop for her son and his first few years. Home Inspired will lead you to think through your own journey imparting grace and vision for your season.
Nurturing the Nations: Reclaiming the Dignity of Women in Building Healthy Cultures
Our world is filled with nations that are impoverished largely because half of their people―the female population―are disenfranchised. But this is not just a book about women; it is a book that deals with the intersection of three seemingly very different subjects: women, poverty and worldview.
Nurturing the Nations explains how the ideas that societies embrace create healthy or impoverished cultures and supports that theory with information regarding domestic violence, murder and pornography. The book addresses one of the greatest causes of worldwide poverty, the lie that men are superior to women.
The Grand Design
Rediscover what it means to be human, male and female made in the image of God, to capture a vision of what God has imagined for the human family, a beautiful standard to be aimed for.
God created humanity, not as one homogenous group, but male and female, with divinely created distinctions and roles. God has given both man and woman important parts to play in His grand design.
The Home Inspired Blog and Podcast
I’ve never gone through such an extreme season of change as I did when I became a first-time mom. In the beginning of my motherhood journey, I was disoriented and felt like the landscape was rather bleak. What is a woman to do when she lands on “Mars” (my description of motherhood)? Many abandon ship or look to shape their new scenery into something that looks like their old familiar territories. We can try to cram motherhood into spaces that we understand, or we can settle down and settle in and begin to explore this new world.
Through Naomi’s blog and podcast, she explores motherhood through a Biblical lens so that we may rediscover how God intended motherhood to be.
Quotes
I grew up with a narrative that basically, in order to fulfill my destiny, I kind of needed to be all that I could be in the workforce. -Naomi Smith (6:27)
When I was in campus ministry, when a woman would tell me I just want to be a stay at home mom when I get out of college, I would think in my head, man, we’ve lost another one. I would think she’s reduced herself in her vision and her ambition. -Naomi Smith (9:39)
I feel like anything related to marriage, family, nurturing of children, education, has really gone through a destructive process over the last 100 years. -Scott Allen (49:14)
What does the Bible say about children? It says they’re a blessing. -Naomi Smith (54:01)
One of the things that just blew me away was that women were created to be life-givers–like God. God is a life-giver, and women were created in his image to give life. -Naomi Smith (54:51)
The narrative with the modern feminist movement put me on a crusade to prove myself out in the world. And the greatest blessing for me was to lay down that crusade and to pick up the spade and begin to attend this garden here locally in obscurity, but it put me in touch with the way of the Lord, in a way that I didn’t know before. -Naomi Smith (1:01:59)
