For all my life I have been haunted by the questions, “What is my purpose as a woman?” “Why am I even here?” Have you?
I have grown up getting the impression from a lot of the people that basically all I am good for as a woman is as simple as this, ‘You get married, cook, clean and have kids.’ I took one look at how people defined biblical womanhood and ran away as fast as I could. That was not at all what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to do what I wanted to do. And the words helper and submit made me squirm. I wanted to make something of myself. There had to be more to life than just getting married and having kids. Right?!
So I set out to prove them wrong. I wanted to prove that I could be a tough farm girl that had no need for pink frilly things. For those of you who know me personally you know I’m not really a girly-girl and I enjoy the outdoors, animals and dirt! Well let me get down real personal here. I hated the fact that I was a girl. One day I even told my mom that. God had given me the gift of being a woman and I had thrown it in the mud and stomped on it. I wanted no part of what I had been told was womanhood. And I was determined that I was not going to be a lady. No joke! I remember how often I would get mad and be like, ‘Why did God have to make me a girl??!’ I would get mad when a guy would open the door, for some reason I thought he was trying to prove that I was weak and not capable of opening the door myself. I hated the idea of my future husband protecting me, ‘I can protect myself.’ I thought. I hated the idea of submitting to a husband. Everything that had to do with being a woman made me cringe.
Over the past year God has really softened my heart to Him and His Word. I have done A LOT of searching. Last month I got the book Girl Defined by Kristen Clark and Bethany Baird. It is AMAZING. Every woman needs to read it! As I was reading it they answered the question, ‘What is a woman’s purpose?’ I cannot get the whole book into one post so you’ll just have to go buy it for 9 dollars and 20 cents on Amazon so you can have the same life transforming experience I had!!! Anyway here is a quick overview of the three pillars of Biblical womanhood.
#1: SHE HELPS OTHERS
Helper. When you read that word, what comes to mind? Do you think of a successful woman or a woman being treated like a doormat? God has made us to help others. He created woman for man. But you know something REALLY awesome?! God uses the same exact Hebrew word for helper to describe himself. God is perfect and holy. He would never use a word to describe himself that wasn’t worthy.
#2: SHE PRODUCES LIFE
We as women are chosen by God to bring life into the world. God made us for this job. Producing life (both physically and spiritually) is at the core of womanhood. Not everyone will get married and not everyone will be able to have kids. But God still calls us to invest in people and be life givers.
#3: SHE NURTURES RELATIONSHIPS
God chose to create women to be highly relational beings. We were created to find satisfaction in deep, meaningful, God-honoring relationships. God wants us first to fill ourselves with him so that we then go out and share God’s love with others. It doesn’t matter how young or old you are, or whether you’re married or single, every woman in every stage of life has the ability to nurture relationships for God’s glory.
So this is a very brief condensed version of what they have in the book. But by the time I got to this chapter in the book I was really seeing what God had truly made me for. Tears ran down my face as I realized how guilty I was. And I prayed, ‘I’m so sorry I didn’t except your design for me… Thank you God for giving me the honor of being a woman.’
That night around midnight as I sat in my bed crying, I accepted God’s definition of womanhood.
Yes that includes the word helper. Yes I want to be a lady. No I still don’t like frilly pink things! Yes I do not hate guys who open doors for me. Yes I want to get married. Yes I LOVE the fact that God gave me the gift of being a woman. And yes someday I’d love to have kids.
This book helped me see what God’s purpose was for me. That I did have a reason for being here. And that I needed to find my identity in Christ alone. And also that I had a lot of selfish pride to get rid of.
I’ve changed a lot haven’t I?
This is probably my favorite quote from the book:
“God made you a female on purpose and for a purpose.”
God has us here for a purpose.Wherever you are, God placed you there for a reason. Maybe that’s getting married and having kids. Maybe that’s leading a Bible study or prayer group. Maybe that’s loving that hard to love person. Maybe it’s taking time to show Jesus to someone at the store. Whatever it is don’t fight God’s design for you as a female. Embrace it. When you do you will find freedom.
“Every creature of God is given something that could be called an inconvenience, I suppose, depending on one’s perspective. The elephant and the mouse might each complain about his size, the turtle about his shell, the bird about the weight of his wings. … The special gift and ability of each creature defines its special limitations. And as the bird easily comes to terms with the necessity of bearing wings when it finds that it is, in fact, the wings that bear the bird — up, away from the world, into the sky, into freedom — so the woman who accepts the limitations of womanhood finds in those very limitations her gifts, her special calling — wings, in fact, which bear her up into perfect freedom, into the will of God. “ – Let Me Be a Women
So tonight I’m working on preparing for my next small group meeting on Friday. I always seem to think I have it all mapped out in my head, I know what I want to say or get across to the girls but when I sit down to write it out I can’t find the words. Trust me I LOVE preparing for small group. It’s an excuse to stop life and be in God’s Word! Like really I look forward to it!!! Cleaning the house and that not so much… lol.
But I chose to talk about how God is our refuge for this meeting. I was thinking and looking up verses about His being our refuge and I just couldn’t get the words to come together. I ended up going for a walk in the woods in the dark and praying. I was asking God to take this and show me what He wanted we to share. Then it donned on me. Why do we need a refuge in the first place? Because of hard times or a storm. Then I started thinking about all the storms in my life and how after each one I can see that God brought it because He wanted my attention. He wanted me to get my mind off myself and look to Him. He wanted me to be completely helpless in the situation so I had to trust Him a 100%. He wanted me to see that I couldn’t do it with my strength. He wanted me to see that in Him I can find a safe place of refuge, a hiding place.
When this came to mind I had it… so I won’t only be talking about just the ‘refuge’ part but also about how God sends storms to change us and even bless us. It’s amazing how each time I think I’ve got it, when I don’t. And every time I tell Him I can’t do this I need you to show me, He does. He provides just what I need. He is faithful every time. When I step out of the way and let Him do the leading every thing goes so much smoother.
Psalm 33:6
By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
Did any of you see the gorgeous stars tonight?! Oh. my. word. They are so bright and beautiful. We had to move a bunch of chickens around tonight and afterwards I went for a walk. I ended up laying on the hay rack and looking at the stars for quite awhile. I have NEVER gone star-gazing on the night before my birthday. I saw the longest shooting star I have ever seen… it was like a special gift from God. One more shooting star before I turn 16. If you can take time to go enjoy the beauty of the stars… God gave them to us.
Well 4 years ago I was in the Philippines meeting my new siblings. I was 11 then. It all seems like a dream in a way. I don’t remember the exact order of how things happened. But we got in at midnight and I remember laying in bed seeing a lizard run up the wall and I was so scared it was going to crawl all over me and in my bed. LOL. Let’s just say back then I was totally NOT prepare to be staying in a foreign country with lizards crawling on walls. It was very HOT there even in January.
When I think back over that trip I wish so much that I could go back. At that time I was not saved and I was full of myself. I ignored the kids at the orphanage and didn’t spend time with them. I was a selfish jerk. I hate who I was. How I wish I could go back and love on all those sweet kids. If only I knew how lucky I was to be able to be there. If only I knew how much Jesus wanted me to reach out. But I can’t reverse time.
The next morning we met Catherine, Alex and Cherrylynn.
They had seen an old picture of me when I was a LOT shorter so when they first saw me they were a bit scared. LOL.
So funny story… my mom, dad and I were eating breakfast with these guys for the first time and they kept staring at us like we were aliens or something. And Charity told us that we were using our forks. We laughed because that’s normal right!? She explained that in the Philippines they use a spoon and push the food onto it with a fork. I tried doing that for awhile but after few days I gave up. 😂
I’ll share more pictures later!
So I decided to start going through and studying different women in the Bible who had an impact on those around them and the Kingdom and see what I can learn from them. Well for whatever reason I flipped to Joshua first and the story of Rahab and the spies. I’ve only done the first verse of that chapter but I’m hoping maybe today to keep on and study some more. But the reason I stopped is because something really stood out to me.
‘And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there.’ Joshua 2:1
Okay so Joshua picks two guys and sends them out secretly to check out the land and see what it’s like. I’m going to guess these guys were godly men of Israel, you know someone he could trust to do a good job. Then the next sentence is what popped out at me. ‘And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there’ Why did these guys go to a prostitute’s house?? Am I the only one who finds that kind of interesting?
I get that God used her to help them out and she repented and turned to the Lord, but it just kind of shocked me that these guys went to her house. It just shows that God can use anyone to further His kingdom. He can use sinners (like ever one of us) to bring glory to His name.
I’m really looking forward to sharing more from my study time on women of the Bible. If y’all have thoughts on this go ahead and comment.
On a short road trip with my dad! Having a great time. We listened to this sermon and really enjoyed it. It’s a great wake up call!
So very thankful for the wonderful dad God has placed in my life… I love you Dad!
There is no one too messed up for Jesus! He wants you with all your secrets and sins. No one is promised tomorrow… turn to Him and He will give you eternal life. There’s no time like the present to get your life going the right way. He loves you and wants you to be His child. I pray that if you are reading this and do not know Jesus as your personal Savior that He will work in your heart and show you how much you need Him…
I have been reading Passion and Purity by Elizabeth Elliot. It is an amazing book. So glad my friend let me borrow it… in the beginning she talks about how she has a spiritual journal. So I decided to start one of my own! It is really nice to write down what your struggling with and add verses or quotes that encourage you. Also it’s a great place to record what God has been doing in your life. Whether you are a girl or a guy you should really start a journal and keep track of stuff that goes on in your spiritual life… it is always neat to go back and see how things turned out or laugh at your crazy roller coaster of emotions!
Simply Faith 