As women in today’s society, we frequently argue that the standard for us is set far too high. We have to be super mom, we have to look perfect, we have to be smart and yet not intimidating. However, I would like to argue that the bar for women is set far too low. I believe the level that we hold each other to, what we expect out of each other, and what men expect out of us, is far inferior to the standard that has actually been set by God.
Back in India I mentioned a podcast by Matt Chandler on Women’s Hurdles. This podcast has had such an impact on my life, how I view myself, how I view my fellow sisters, and how I view my role in the body of Christ. I’ve listened to it a total of four times now, and every time the Lord brings about another revelation.
We as women, as daughters of the Lord, as sisters in Christ, we have a responsibility to hold each other to the standard that God has set for us. We have the responsibility to call each other to greatness, to encourage each other when we stumble, and to celebrate with each other in our successes.
As women today we fall so short of this. We gossip about each other’s weaknesses, as if we don’t have weaknesses of our own. We grow jealous of each other’s triumphs and giftings, rather than celebrating what God is doing in the lives of our sisters. We enable each other in our addictions; we enable destructive, dishonorable and disrespectful behavior even though we know in the depths of our heart that it is wrong. We so commonly do these things because society tells us it’s okay, and ‘normal’. But ladies the bar is two-feet above the ground. We must raise it!
We are told to fear the Lord, to guard our tongue, to teach with kindness, to be a helpmate, just as our Father helps us (Proverbs 31). We are told not to put our value in our beauty or our charm, we are to speak with wisdom, we are not to be quarrelsome, we are not to be slanderers. We are to help the poor and give a hand to the needy, we are to raise up our house and disciple our children. On top of that, in regards to our relationship with each other, we are to train those women that are younger than us to fear the Lord, to love well, to be self-controlled, to be pure, and kind (Titus 2). These are the things that the Lord literally spells out for us as women. This is how He instructs us, as His daughters, to live and thrive in community with one another, and as crazy as it may sound, it works (I’ve got 8-months of intense community living to prove it). When we operate according to the standard that God has written out for us, our spirits thrive. We thrive as individuals, we thrive as a gender, and we thrive as a whole community.
Society expects so little of us. They expect us rip each other apart, they expect us to gossip, to slander, to rely on our beauty rather than our hearts. They expect us to be either a pretty, empty, smile or a barking, quarrelsome, mouth. And when we fall into those categories, we as women, as sisters, give into the complacency that the rest of society has developed.
Ladies this isn’t ‘feminism’; this isn’t about ‘going against the grain’, or a refusal to submit or to serve, because God in fact calls us to serve. This is about setting for ourselves, and for the women around us, a standard that corresponds to that of the Gospel. This is about being the community of women that God calls us to be. This is about being a community of women that doesn’t talk behind each other’s backs, but one that lift’s up our sister when she falls. This is about being a community that doesn’t use their charm and looks to manipulate, but rather speak with honesty, integrity and wisdom. It might take a woman of beauty and intelligence to flaunt her assets in order to acquire her desires, but it takes a woman of wisdom, humility, faith and honor, to change the world.
You don’t have to prove yourself capable of reaching this bar, or fear the failure of not obtaining it, because God already created us complete with that criterion. When He crafted each and every one of us, He formed us into that kind of woman. At our core, that is who we are, we don’t have to prove it or earn it, we just have to choose it. The world needs God fearing women; the world needs us now more than ever. We certainly can’t do it alone, but with each other’s encouragement, and Jesus at the helm, we can bring His Kingdom here to earth.
