I desperately hope not. If it is I'm in a world of trouble. I'm retired, and I'm sick of cooking. Fortunately my husband is one of a kind. He will eat anything.
Seriously, though, a woman's role is in the kitchen, in the laundry room, raising children, making lists, running the household, being a counselor ... often while having a job, balancing the checkbook, paying bills, handling the budget, doing the income taxes, handling all of the business, meeting the needs of her husband, sometimes her parents. Well, you get it.
Non-Christians just love to have fun with this topic. They just don't get it. I think a lot of women (and men) don't get it, either ... Christian and non.
It's quite simple once you get past the power struggle (SELF again). God made Adam and watched him for a while, shook his head and said, "He's never going to make it. He needs a helper." And, voila! Enter woman. Man was not good at multi-tasking, so He made a creature who could do ten things at once - woman. God mentions 'helper' twice in Genesis 2.
God intended this to be the closest relationship: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh." God also said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply."
This is a part of the order which God designed into all of His creation. In order for all of creation to run smoothly each creation has its own position and its own role to play in the Creator's plan. The sun does not want to be the moon, the stars do not yearn to be planets, the angels have a hierarchy specific to them. Birds do not insist on being elephants, and lions are not jealous of fish. Likewise, human beings are assigned roles and positions in order to carry out God's purpose.
I've never quite understood all of the hubbub, and I've never wanted to be 'like a man,' nor have I ever felt that I was, in any way, not equal. I am woman. I do not feel threatened in any way, or go sulk in a corner because I 'can't be a man!' I like being a woman.
And, once again, here is where we find that old serpent, the devil. He wasn't satisfied to be the most beautiful of all God's creation. He wanted to be God - to replace God - which he has been working at since way back when. And he was not satisfied to get only himself out of sync with creation. No. He had to come along and work on us so we, too, would be dissatisfied. Every place you look, and find disorder and confusion, there he is.
A woman can do anything she wants to do in God's orderly plan. Have you ever read about these women in the Bible? There were queens and prophets. Phoebe was a deaconess, an office common in early church history.
Ah, the trouble must be in 1 Cor. 11: "Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ."
But then consider this, in the same chapter: "However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God. "
Or perhaps the offense is here in Ephesians 5: "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church.."
But then what about this: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.." or this: "So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church..." (Eph. 5)
Do you see where it begins to be a little silly, this tit-for-tat? And what could be at the root of the problem here? Perhaps the same desire to take over the man's position and role - in the same way that Satan desires to have God's position? Hmmm?
Worrying about this type of thing seems to me to be gross spiritual immaturity. A better thing would be to start reading God's Word (all of it) with the desire to understand how God thinks, rather than men and women picking out the parts they can beat each other up with when taken out of context. Rather, husband and wife should each seek to be servants of each other.
God wants us to grow up and stop wasting time on such foolishness.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ladies, once you get this mastered, we'll talk:
Description of a Worthy Woman - Proverbs 31 -
10An excellent wife, who can find?For her worth is far above jewels.
11The heart of her husband trusts in her,
And he will have no lack of gain.
12She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life.
13She looks for wool and flax
And works with her hands in delight.
14She is like merchant ships;
She brings her food from afar.
15She rises also while it is still night
And gives food to her household
And portions to her maidens.
16She considers a field and buys it;
From her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17She girds herself with strength
And makes her arms strong.
18She senses that her gain is good;
Her lamp does not go out at night.
19She stretches out her hands to the distaff,
And her hands grasp the spindle.
20She extends her hand to the poor,
And she stretches out her hands to the needy.
21She is not afraid of the snow for her household,
For all her household are clothed with scarlet.
22She makes coverings for herself;
Her clothing is fine linen and purple.
23Her husband is known in the gates,
When he sits among the elders of the land.
24She makes linen garments and sells them,
And supplies belts to the tradesmen.
25Strength and dignity are her clothing,
And she smiles at the future.
26She opens her mouth in wisdom,
And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
27She looks well to the ways of her household,
And does not eat the bread of idleness.
28Her children rise up and bless her;
Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:
29"Many daughters have done nobly,
But you excel them all."
30Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain,
But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
31Give her the product of her hands,
And let her works praise her in the gates.
And, finally: "...be subject to one another in the fear of Christ."
A Child of the King
Copyright 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Posts
