This is your friend, Elisabeth Elliot, continuing my talks today about fathers and mothers. There's been a lot of recent pressure on making fathers assume half of the responsibility of raising the children. Now this does seem to me to be quite unreasonable, given the fact that the man is the provider, and to provide for a family is pretty much of a full-time job. I do thank God for the husbands and fathers who make time at home in the few hours that they do have to father their children and to be godly husbands to their wives. But let's face it.
Most men have to be away all day, every day.
So if the man was designed by God to be the provider, the woman was certainly designed by God to be the principal nurturer. She's the one who receives the child, bears the child, nurtures the child, and if possible in today's world, she's at home. You know that I urge women to stay home if they possibly can. I get letters from women who are deeply hurt by that urging, because they tell me that they cannot stay home. Of course, the Lord knows the truth of the situation.