Dominion:
Domain; absolute ownership, a territory or sphere of influence or control…
Domain:
Field or sphere of activity or influence, the area a given person or people rules or an area of knowledge.
Are you a woman who’s chosen to make home-making your career?
Then it’s important to remember that your sphere of influence — your domain — is within your four walls, your home.
Dominion or Micro-Management?
Over the years, I’ve taken my job at home pretty seriously. I grabbed with gusto, all I could to order my home, teach and train my children, and manage healthy meals, household chores, and family relationships.
At times, I became a micro-manager. Described as one who takes too much credit for influence and considers themselves irreplaceable. Anyone else “been there, done that?”
Yes, I said it! I thought too highly of myself and possibly, of my position. Now, I’m just being honest about my personal lack of balance. It doesn’t lessen the importance of being a wife, mother, and home organizer.
These roles necessarily bring with them a picture of dominion.
Take a look at those descriptions of dominion:
- ruling control (yep, that’s what I was just talking about, but out of balance!)
- sphere of influence ( I love that term)
- land ruled (ahem, I’ve been known to be out of balance on that one, too!)
- self-governing territory (our home and family)
So, as powerful and old-fashioned as the word dominion sounds, it is exactly what our role as homemaker entails.
We are to influence and be in control of the territory we’ve been given – our home and family. (Now pay attention – not our husbands! :)
The Bible offers us an even more exacting definition of this role.
It is a beautiful, demanding, and rewarding job, and we, as women, are equipped to fulfill it. The most beautiful picture of this dominion is found throughout Proverbs 31.
An excellent wife, who can find?
For her worth is far above jewels……..………Give her the product of her hands,
And let her works praise her in the gates.Proverbs 31: 10 & 31
Dominion Changes As our Children Grow
If you’re at all like me, you’ve gotten caught up in the complexities and busyness of running your home and family, not slowing down long enough to consider what life (and dominion) would look like in ten or twenty years.
Picture the adjustments maturing children. Children grow up and add new ideas to our management style and construction ideas to our nest building! And then they leave the nest – the nest we worked so hard to create, maintain, and prosper.
Harumph! What’s this?! I need to adjust and learn flexibility?
Yep! Life with adult children gives us the opportunity to learn flexibility with a capital ‘F.’
But in the adjusting, we gain the wonderful adventure of learning new skills and seeing opportunities that, had we kept doing it our way, we’d have missed!
My older children have brought computer skills, carpentry, home decorating, midwifery, sales and purchasing finesse, beautiful harp music, photography, historical sewing, Civil War reenacting, music, boating (yes, I wake surf with my kids all the time), and all manner of adventure to our lives.
If I had demanded that my dominion, my ideas for home management be maintained, I would have squelched my children’s creative genius, and we all would have missed growing and learning so many new things!
So — dominion doesn’t just mean doing things our way.
Dominion means taking God’s perfect picture, all of life, and the people in our sphere of influence and adding them together to create and uphold the best possible atmosphere for growing, learning, and loving in our home.
It Changes Again With Grandchildren!
This picture feels like a very long time ago. We now have 22 grandkids! Yeah, you read that right!
And yes, we can exercise dominion in this area of our lives as well.
When grandchildren first came along, to be honest, I didn’t quite know what to do with them!
Grandkids aren’t quite the same as our own children. We don’t actually have the dominion (remember it means control and ownership) over them the way we did for our own kids.
We can’t train them the way we did, and we don’t have the same responsibility for them as our own children. So what does that look like?
Well, time has shown me that grand-parenting is just another avenue for taking dominion. My favorite part of the definition of dominion — sphere of influence.
Just because these babes aren’t our immediate flesh and blood does not mean we can’t have influence on them. No, we don’t rule over our grandchildren, yet we can offer much influence into their ever-growing lives.
I have a wonderful example of this in my life. Granny was a woman of dominion and great influence. She is remembered by all her grandchildren as our favorite Grandma – the one who showed us service, and strength, and generosity. I can still smell her perfume and hear her laugh!
And so, like my Granny, I choose to be a positive influence on the newest members of our family – our grandchildren.
For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well. 2 Timothy 1:5
Grandchildren also fit into the descriptioin “self-governing territory.” When they’re in our home – our self-governing territory – we don’t give up our standards or style of management. We just include them and offer them an opportunity to learn how other people live and function.
So there it is! Grandchildren offer us another beautiful way to pass on what God has shown us through the sharing of our experience, wisdom, and love.
God designed family in such a beautiful and profound way.
As my children raise their children, I get to share the wonder and joy of watching the next generation live and grow and learn! And my dominion grows along with this process!
So the moral of this story? Relax and enjoy the ride!
Oh, it can be a roller-coaster ride as we flex and bend to the varying personalities of our own children and of their children!
But that’s part of the wonder of God’s plan to grow us into the very person He desires us to be!
And considering He’s the author of Dominion Himself, we can trust Him to work it all out for our good and for His Glory!
Amen and amen.