If you've spent any significant amount of time around me you know one of the topics that I spend a lot of time thinking (and reading, researching, learning and talking) about are my roles and responsibilities as a women of God.
I don't know if you've noticed it but there's a whole lot of people out there telling us how we should be living our life, and a lot of the time they don't agree. I got my friends telling me to do one thing, my parents telling me to do another, the media telling me I should be acting one way and the bible telling me to act another. Even theologians disagree in regards to what the bibles says are appropriate roles for christian women to fill.
What am I supposed to do? What is any God-fearing christian women supposed to do?
Am I here to glorify myself? To be constantly perfecting my body with the newest diet, the latest exercise plan, the most expensive makeup and surgical procedures? Am I just here to do what I want, for my own purposes, to fuel my own self-absorption?
Am I here to have a "successful" career? If I become the CEO of some fortune 500 company, where everybody respects my authority and buisness finesse will I be a women then? Or should I get my Phd and become the president of a college? If I become an "empowered" and independent women who needs no one, will I be satisfied?
Am I just here to marry some nice Christian guy, settle down and have babies? Is my future one of constant puttering away of time, of church bake sales, of gossipy dissatisfaction, constantly running after some child with a dirty diaper?
Am I worth only the services I can provide?
*(I would like to note that I don't think there is a single thing wrong with having a career or with being a homemaker. Both are vital roles in the body of Christ. However, I think it's important that we as women choose our path as a result of God's calling, not because we feel like we "have" to)
That's the lie the devil would have us believe that our lives are to be constantly defined by some person's evaluation of us, that our time is best spent doing what someone else thinks we should be doing.
What matters is: Are we living our lives on a day to day basis in the pursuit of God? Are we constantly seeking his face and his will for our lives? Do we do all things as if we were doing them for Christ? Who is the center of our world, us or Christ?
I've got so many voices telling me what to do it's hard to hear God in all the racket. I want to live for Christ so radically that when people look at my life they shake their heads and say "If Jesus isn't the son of God, she has wasted her life."
"If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."
I get so discouraged by all the disagreements among Christians. When should a women speak, when should she be silent? What is submission? If I remain single, what am I going to do with my life?
I'm starting to think that most people think being a Christian women means being a quiet, passive, timid people-pleaser!
The sad thing is that I'm starting to think the Christian men think the same thing about us. If you've been around church people for more then a couple of weeks you've probably heard someone mention going on or knowing someone who went on a short term mission trip. They probably made a comment somewhere along these lines.
"and oh what a sacrifice those women made, no makeup or blow dryers for two weeks!"
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Are you serious? Am I supposed to be so shallow and self-centered that going without the tools that empower my vanity is a sacrifice?
I don't know whether to be infuriated or saddened at the low expectations that exists out there for the average Christian women in regards to expanding the kingdom of God.
Oh, there's expectations out there all right.
I know exactly what I'm supposed to look like, I know exactly what kind of career I'm supposed to pursue, I know exactly what kind of man I'm supposed to marry and exactly what kind of children I'm supposed to produce.
I'm here to let the world know that there are Christian women out there who are fighting the world's stereotypes and expectations for their lives. I'm here to let the world know that Christ is alive. I challenge you to stop defining yourself by the standards of the world, and start seeing yourself as an ambassador for Christ, justified through grace and ready to take the good news of Jesus Christ to the world.
"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him."
I will live for Christ.
If he gives me a husband, then I will live submission to the very letter of the Word of God
and as long as he keeps me single then I will have pure relationships with all my brothers-in-Christ.
What matters is: Are we living our lives on a day to day basis in the pursuit of God? Are we constantly seeking his face and his will for our lives? Do we do all things as if we were doing them for Christ? Who is the center of our world, us or Christ?
I've got so many voices telling me what to do it's hard to hear God in all the racket. I want to live for Christ so radically that when people look at my life they shake their heads and say "If Jesus isn't the son of God, she has wasted her life."
"If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."
- 1 Corinthians 15:19
I get so discouraged by all the disagreements among Christians. When should a women speak, when should she be silent? What is submission? If I remain single, what am I going to do with my life?
I'm starting to think that most people think being a Christian women means being a quiet, passive, timid people-pleaser!
The sad thing is that I'm starting to think the Christian men think the same thing about us. If you've been around church people for more then a couple of weeks you've probably heard someone mention going on or knowing someone who went on a short term mission trip. They probably made a comment somewhere along these lines.
"and oh what a sacrifice those women made, no makeup or blow dryers for two weeks!"
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Are you serious? Am I supposed to be so shallow and self-centered that going without the tools that empower my vanity is a sacrifice?
I don't know whether to be infuriated or saddened at the low expectations that exists out there for the average Christian women in regards to expanding the kingdom of God.
Oh, there's expectations out there all right.
I know exactly what I'm supposed to look like, I know exactly what kind of career I'm supposed to pursue, I know exactly what kind of man I'm supposed to marry and exactly what kind of children I'm supposed to produce.
But, what I want to know is how am I going to advance the kingdom of God!
The silence is deafening
I'm here to let the world know that there are Christian women out there who are fighting the world's stereotypes and expectations for their lives. I'm here to let the world know that Christ is alive. I challenge you to stop defining yourself by the standards of the world, and start seeing yourself as an ambassador for Christ, justified through grace and ready to take the good news of Jesus Christ to the world.
"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him."
-2 Corinthians 5:20-21
I will live for Christ.
If he gives me a husband, then I will live submission to the very letter of the Word of God
and as long as he keeps me single then I will have pure relationships with all my brothers-in-Christ.
"For I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith is the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. For I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain"
-Galatians 2:20-21
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