"What does it mean to be a woman? The current cultural ideal for womanhood encourages women to be strident, overly sexual, self-centred, extremely independent (or Codependent) -- but above all -- powerful and in control. Sadly, this model of womanhood hasn't delivered the happiness and fulfillment it promised. The Bible teaches that it's not up to us to decide what womanhood is all about. God created male and female for a very specific purpose. His design isn't arbitrary or unimportant. It is very intentional and He wants women to discover, embrace, and delight in the beauty of His design."
-Moody Publishers
Celebrating my daughter's High School graduation recently brings this mother to another level of reflection on my faith journey. Have I taught her to seek out and follow truth? Do I model biblical womanhood to Jess and her sisters on a consistent basis? Going through this study, the Spirit of the living God reminds me of times where I did impart God's Word through mentoring, mothering and modelling the principles. At the same time, I am gently reminded of those times where I didn't and my heart breaks for the lies I bought into of a counterfeit restoration! Some of which were lies I inadvertently bought into through media and cultural influences where I aligned and defined myself throughout my formative years. Ideologies rooted in the "Wonder Woman" mindset of the 70's-80's, I was swept up into a whirlind of deception which carried over into my marriage, parenting and identity without realizing it at the time. (We will look at that later on in week 6 "Hear me Roar") I cannot erase time or mistakes I've made as a wife, a mother, a woman... but I can receive God's restoring grace to redeem those times of waywardness. Although I had a radical transformation with giving my life fully to Christ in 1996 receiving such grace, I have been unfolding His truth and life each passing day since.
Restoration begins in the heart, extends to the family and seeks to infiltrate the world!
I believe Tim and I have been given the gift of raising confident daughters, yet God asks us to parent them to be soft in their strength. We pray that they know their true strength lies with their identity in Christ and God's plan for them rather than the worlds view on their identity. Deep down inside, we ache to be loved, accepted, secure and significant and ultimately to make a difference. My girls are no exception as they too want to be world changers! I remind them often- it is not through "Girl Power", but through the power of God at work within:
"May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." Ephesians 3:19
How about you? Do you ache to see God's Kingdom come and His will be done? As the Founder of Women's Journey of Faith and in leadership since 1999, my involvement has catapulted my interest in learning more about why God created us as women over the years. This study has grabbed my heart like no other because of it's foundational teaching, hence calling it "True Woman 101"... Brilliant Mary and Nancy! (Co-authors of this study) Hats off to them and Moody Publishers for putting together a fantastic study that is so needed in our ever changing, fast paced, love starved, media frenzied, celebrity chasing world. One that more often than not seeks to confuse, distract and lure us all to distort gender and God's "divine Design" through oppression, neutralization or seeking an extremist feminist agenda like no other time in history.
“Sugar and spice and everything nice, that’s what little girls are made of.” The message of this nursery rhyme is one that many women today would rather not embrace. After completing week three in your True Woman 101 book, watch this twenty-minute conversation between authors Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Mary Kassian, and their friends as they discuss how our culture has changed the idea of womanhood and then point us to core qualities of a true woman of God."- TW101
TrueWoman 101 - Week 3 Table Talk from TrueWoman 101 on Vimeo.
Chapter 3 Focus verses: 1 Peter 4:7, Genesis 2:18-20, 1 Corinthians 11:8-9, Psalm 42:1-2, Genesis 2:22-23, Genesis 3:20, 1 Peter 3-4, 2 Timothy 3:6-7, Titus 2:4-5, 1 Timothy 5:14, Proverbs 31:27, Genesis 2:18,
On page 84 of the TW101 workbook, Mary and Nancy confirm four core strengths and attributes of women as a whole:
- Softness
- Having a welcoming responsive spirit
- Forming deep relational bonds
- Creating a place to beget and nurture life.
Gender Matters. True we are imperfect creatures living in a fallen world, but Jesus came to restore all that was lost in the fall of mankind! This includes restoring women to our original intent and empowering us with the Spirit of God to make it possible to live out those strengths and influence rightly in a world aching for answers.
Do you agree? Check out the discussion guide below and visit TW101 website for other helpful videos on this topic including "Softness and Strength", "Bent Towards Relationships", and the "Challenges of Womanhood" We'd love to hear from you on any of the points in this study. What does it mean to be a woman? As we open God's word together, we will all be blown away by His divine design:)
2 comments:
Having two daughters and a son myself, and going through this study earlier this spring, has definitely opened my eyes to what it means to be a woman and for what God's desire is for my girls/myself; and also for my son and hubby to be the men God created them to be. The world has it so backwards when God isn't the focus and the Word of God isn't the guideline. I appreciated this weeks look at how boys were created by God.
Thanks Jodi for sharing on this. Unfortunately, I had bought into the lie that been soft is equal to been stupid, and our culture always speaks contrary to the Owner's manual and thus, we find ourselves all messed up! Having 2 girls and my 2yr old son has opened my eyes so much to the huge differences between both gender, right from the getgo! Can you imagine my 2yr old always running to our aide whenever he thinks we are hurt and asking, "are you ok, mamma? I could see his God's designed nature of being a protector already, and how sweet it will be for us to just softly accept His design for us as women. I totally love this new counter revolution!
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