Nowadays, everyone seems to get on their soapbox to yell things like self-assertion, corporate career ladder success and female-led families, but God says the most empowering things women should take pride in are those that are uniquely feminine and beautiful in His eyes. These include homemaking, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, nurturing and voluntary submission to husbands. These spell femininity at its finest.
The only female judge of Israel, Deborah calls herself “a mother in Israel” (Judges 5:7). If we read the Bible thoroughly, we see that’s the kind of leadership role God wants for women. Divine femininity looks like nurturing and serving behind the scenes.
Here’s an excerpt from an email I received from a female reader and fellow ANR fan:
“I am middle aged with four children, am sadly divorced. We didn’t share a faith.
Also, and here is honesty, it was a power struggle, I had been brought up to be equal to men by being the same as men. This is, of course, a ghastly misinterpretation on equality, however it was, and mainly still is, the bedrock on which women gained equality. Rather than the really glorious equality in our differences!
In the last decade I have been graced in having my eyes open to see there is only room for one head of the household and that had to be ‘himself’. And the greatest gift I receive in honouring this is so many opportunities to learn humility in obedience.”
Godly women with godly husbands back in the ’50s were happier than any other subset of the female population since then.
Some ANR women have noted how they feel very feminine during ANR sessions. This is what femininity looks like, it doesn’t look like women wanting to be men.
True happiness comes when you’re at peace with God’s grand design, with his gender roles.
In the ’50s, I believe women validated themselves by how they made good housewives, now it’s how sexy their bodies are, who they’re sleeping with/getting attention from, or their career achievements. Today’s woman may think she’s happier since she’s come a long way from those “ancient, repressive ’50s” but soul-deep happiness belongs to the woman who doesn’t feel she has a point to prove or an opposite sex to compete with. Joy belongs to those who know the sexes were created to complement, not compete against each other.
I recently passed by a high school football practice and dinner event. One mother made three huge trays of baked ziti and one tray of salad, she also bought a bag of rolls, lots of cookies and bottled water for the players and coaches. Again, this is what femininity looks like.
Women aren’t second class citizens. God has a role for women that is completely opposite of what feminists would like girls to believe. Serving behind the scenes doesn’t mean you’re worth less. Just like being a spiritual or household leader doesn’t give you any more worth than those you lead because leading doesn’t mean lording it over others (Matthew 20:25-28). Being a leader isn’t all about authority, privileges or glamour and by definition, not everyone will get to lead, contrary to what the media and today’s top prosperity preachers espouse. If we all lead, who’ll be left to follow?
I would vote for a female president, as women aren’t biblically prohibited from holding political leadership positions. I only have a problem with women who want to wear male pants, and this has been going on since the Fall.
Because most people don’t have any regard for God, don’t read the Bible and want to redefine everything, like His beautifully defined gender roles, Couples Nursing is as weird to the modern Westerner as biblical gender roles are.
But those who know better have more soul-deep happiness.
Christ-centered ANR 