I’m told there is a war on women.
Other than the one I wage with the image in my mirror on a daily basis, I dare say, I think I may be in the dark on this whole war on women thing.
My war is like most women’s. I’m too much or not enough in the following categories: weight, laughter, attitude, education, grace, courage, ingenuity, understanding, compassion, wounding, emotional, tenacity, audacity, vulnerability, sexuality, age and skill.
While not an exhaustive list, this is pretty close to the daily warmongers that rage on the battleground of my head and heart, enough to make most men retreat.
Of course, men have their own internal battles.
But this is my response for the war that I apparently forgot to suit up for. None of this of course, is a new phenomena. This is fallen life.
Yes, since that fateful moment Eve decided autonomy was better and Adam said ‘Amen’ while blaming her for his choice, our order in life has been a bit of a challenge.
Marc
h is International Women’s History Month. We are supposed to be celebrating women’s achievements.
But, with what spirit?
Bishop T.D. Jakes once preached that some of us can’t get God to release our blessing because he knows we’d spend so much time driving by the naysayer’s homes showing off our new blessing that we’d miss HIS heart for blessing us, entirely.
And that dear sisters and brothers, is the pit I believe we have collectively fallen into–and with every pink hat march, we throw a little more dirt over our already tired heads, just to say “we can.”
Maybe it’s because…
I’ve learned about my womanhood on the battlefield of actual life that had less than zero to do with man’s oppression.
My husband died. He didn’t walk out. But plenty have since then.
I have every reason to schedule my pink hat fitting, order my bitterness sign, and strike a pose for social media in solidarity with thousands of women worldwide. But why?
I learned a long time ago, how precious men and women are to one another. While watching the life nearly leave from my daughter’s sick body several times, I observed families (Husband and Wife) huddled together in prayer, making decisions together, and taking shifts just for sanity and shower breaks. Alone and tired, I realized just priceless the family unit truly is.
No one had a poster of rage or got to wear the badge of EQUALITY. This was life and death.
It is my firm belief that unless we heed the call of the Creator of reconciliation and order, our generation will further decline, leaving our daughters with an irretrievably maleficent heart at the expense of all of creation.
We will die in droves from the weight of carrying the loads of life for our emotional, mental, and physical frames we were never intended to carry.
It’s upon us now, just look around. Turn on your radio. Watch “50 Shades of Cray.”
It’s all around us.
But I don’t buy it. And neither should you.
My answer was and is to look UP to the God of order and redemption and submit myself to his ways and thoughts.
My greatest “job” as a woman is to understand the office of womanhood and protect, honor, and serve it with the vulnerability, confidence, excellence, and complete reliance upon the one who sees all.
My name will be included in Women’s History Month and so will yours. The world always remembers beauty. We are the beauty. And God always honors faith, order, and excellence. Always.
He brings up, but he also brings down. He makes all things equal with the wisdom to make us separate. To serve us. So we can serve one another.
I could list multiple historical female figures who inspire me, who serve as a compass to possibilities and discoveries. And none of them were holding a sign of rage or idolizing their genitalia in a vain attempt to shout to the world that their womb is their own to rob the world from another life.
My female heroes are those who embraced their place at the table of life as an orderly act of grace toward the “weaker’ vessel.
The ones strong enough to submit to a God they haven’t seen, by honoring his divine placement of men and women.
The ones who know where their help, wages, and voting rights come from.
The ones who know who butters their bread and watches over them as they go about their business.
Speaking of business…
Herman Cain recently interviewed me about my new book and radio show. You can listen here. He asked me what a godly woman was to me.
My reply was simply this: A godly woman is a woman about her business.
- The woman who knows her first order of business is to her home. Her husband and children. And if she’s not married, the single woman committed to her own care and provision.
- The woman who doesn’t ask permission to show up on the playing field of life because she knows she is called and created to make the world beautiful with her talents and gifts.
- The woman who isn’t found gossiping and complaining about others.
- The woman who knows what a crowning jewel her husband is and provides a safe harbor for him to rest and be respected.
- The woman not comparing herself in envy and jealousy. The resting woman. She can be found in Proverbs 31 and in many of our history books and in your mirror.
Clearly, I don’t buy the war on women charade. Sure, I could cite stats of “inequality” but the recent one I found most interesting was that of female CEO’s. As high as they climb, they always believe they are a fraud– they call it the imposter syndrome.
They are tired and angry because the top of the ladder didn’t yield the celebration they envisioned. But not because men were holding them back, it was their own issues as women subscribing to the world’s narratives of what women should be that left them mentally exhausted and emotionally dead.
Here’s a thought: What if WOMEN themselves are the ones waging the war on women?
Yes, the world around us has not been kind to women throughout history and God has been patient with us as we right many wrongs when it comes to his girls.
But in our nation, we have every right we’ve ever decently marched for and yet we still agree with the enemy of our souls in a desperate attempt to be equals with our brothers in creation.
It will never be so.
I didn’t write it, but I believe it.
As women, we can put on a uniform and fight, we can fly jets, operate on human bodies, run businesses, start revolutions etc… but in the end, we do creation a disservice when we abandon our true femininity.
We leave the world void of a soft place to land and exhale. To regroup. You may be asking, can’t we do both? Sure, but at a cost.
It’s time we believe and behave that we know who we are because of whose we are.
Our war is with the pervert of all creation.
Don’t settle for idolatry ladies. It’s exhausting and God really hates it.
Create your own history this month. BE a woman. Because you can.
xo,
