Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum announced today that my mother, Margaret (“Peggy”) Elizabeth Phillips, has been named by their organization as “Homemaker of the Year.” Having watched my mother stand beside my father for so many years, and having seen her wise counsel, her unflappable commitment to her family, and her desire to see each of her children develop their own unique gifts and personalities, I am especially grateful that Mrs. Schlafly would bestow upon her such a kindness.

Some of the biblical virtues commanded in Scripture and modeled by my mother for which I am especially grateful include:

1. My mother has spent a lifetime as a “keeper at home” for her husband and children (Titus 2:5).
2. My mother has always rejoiced in the fruit of the womb as God’s gracious reward (Psalm 127:3).
3. My mother has always cared for the way of her household such that her husband had no need of spoil and could be in the gates of the city (Proverbs 31:11).

Because of her sacrifice, her unflappable support, and her joyful embrace of the duties of wife and mother, she enabled her husband to serve a United States President at the executive branch level, be used as a tool of the Lord to proclaim truth to a nation, and forge a national revival of interest in Christian and constitutional republican government. Both her high intelligence and her many virtues have been examples to each of her six children. Each of us (her children) recognize that Mom is uniquely blessed with an unusual dispensation of loyalty, commitment to principle, and genuine charity — three virtues which are not commonly found in the same person.

To her children, she is known as a woman in whose mouth is the law of kindness; who has devoted herself to their education and prosperity; and whose love for beauty (especially in the realm of music) has left a profound and lasting impression.

My mother had the unique distinction of attending her twenty-fifth college reunion, at age forty-seven, carrying a baby in her womb — my younger brother Samuel Joshua Phillips — whom she would home educate for the entirety of his childhood, finally graduating him last year, and thus completing (alongside my father), nearly forty years of remarkable parent-to-child training in the lives her six children.

The Homemaker of the Year Award will be presented by Mrs. Schlafly to my mother this September in St. Louis. On behalf of Vision Forum and the Phillips family, I want to extend my thanks to Mrs. Schlafly for recognizing the faithfulness of my mother and honoring her with this prestigious award.