One thing I have always loved about the Bible is how cut and dry it is.
Good and evil are outlined. Moral and immoral are defined. Sin is sin and there is nothing left floating in a gray area. This clarity also applies to God's intentions for his most divine creation, man and woman. For some reason though, well, I'll give you at least one reason, women have propelled themselves in all the wrong directions demanding equality with men. And I will be the first to say that I will not be grouped in with this movement of women. Going back to that reason I was going to give you, it simply boils down to pride. Now don't get me wrong, I am PROUD to be a woman. However, that pride is from a place of broken humility because I know that God gifted me the privilege of being a woman, he designed that for my life, and the joy that I experience because I am a woman is simply because of His grace alone. I am not proud because I have climbed a corporate ladder, have esteemed myself as a top ranking female athlete, or have managed to build this glamorous balance of the ultimate working from home mother who can do it all. While all of those achievements are admirable, they do not surpass what the Lord says about me as a woman. And I feel it is imperative to understand what the one truth says about a woman before rewriting God's living word to fit a narrative that is appealing to the times of today.
So, what DOES God say about women? Psalms 139:14 says I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Luke 1:45 calls me blessed because I believe in the Lord's faithfulness. Proverbs 31:17 says that a Godly woman uses her arms, which are strong for their tasks, to set about her work vigorously. Beautiful truths that I can only hope to exemplify each new day in a way pleasing to God.
But do you know what else is said about a woman?
A foolish child is a father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like the constant dripping of a leaky roof. -Proverbs 19:13
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. -Ephesians 5:22
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." -Genesis 2:18
The creator of the universe, the heavens and Earth, of all creation who has all authority over heaven and hell, clearly defined different places and roles for men and women, so why on His green earth would we demand to call ourselves EQUAL with men? The Lord does not say that men are better than women or vice versa, but they are obviously DIFFERENT. Not just different in their physical or genetic makeup, but to the core. Men and women have different tendencies and strengths that the other could not reciprocate. Respected, honored, valued, loved as a sister in Christ, YES, all of these things we do deserve. But equality? No. Remember that thing about pride I had mentioned earlier? Well, my homegirl Eve decided to give in to some fruit, and the enemy came in and corrupted every good work God had done, and that includes filling our hearts with pride. Now here is where it gets interesting, because Satan is clever and sneaky. In this case, he has taken the submissive humility that in a biblical context is righteous, and created a sense of false humility that boasts our own pride. Let me give you an example of this false humility.
When I scroll through social media, a good portion of content is moms or other women going on about how much they are unappreciated for what they do at home, in the workplace, etc. Jokes are made, hashtags are formulated and spread, and sooner or later there is an entire community of women preaching to one another, "You work harder than him, you get less sleep than him, you wear more hats than he does, and you do it all without a single complaint or crack in your smile. How dare he tell you he's tired. How dare he walk past the dishwasher to be unloaded. Us other women and mommas and wives understand and see you girl, keep pushing through." And by the time I'm done scrolling, I may think I exhibit virtuous humility because, but I really have fanned a flame of pride that quenched out any humility within me.
The devil has disguised
what we call humble
as self-centered pride.
How do I know I don't have any humility left in me? Because I forget to view my husband, a male coworker, whoever he may be, as a son of the Lord. My focus is now on how I believe I should be compensated, and not on how Jesus calls me to give love abundantly. Do I necessarily want to love abundantly when the clean dishes sit in the washer for a day? No. But I also believe that Jesus didn't want to endure being physically ripped to shreds and hung on a cross for my sins. Did he cry to the Father and say, "I've lived a life better than she ever could. I don't deserve to die a death equal to what she would deserve."? Obviously not, so who am I to demand so much out of pure pride?
God does not love all of his children equally. That suggests that His love measurable. He loves his children uniquely. We are all woven with a combination of talents and inclinations that are specific solely to you. When we demand equality where God did not ordain it, we are not only disrespecting his son by saying that he is not worthy of the role God set in place for him, but we are denying the Holy Spirit access to work in us in the unique way that God envisioned before we were even born. We are striving to a level and place God never intended, and are in turn extinguishing possibility of the existence of the women God wanted to see us evolve into. A man could never fulfill the God given role he designed for you, so why wouldn't you desire to fulfill that for yourself? My prayer is that we would not let the enemy manipulate our community of women to create a false identity of those neglected and suffering silently, but as biblically humble women who stand firm on our foundation laid over 2,000 years ago.
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