Biblical Womanhood...

I have been wanting something to read. Something that would challenge, inspire, encourage me. Especially in marriage and my role as a woman. There are some books that, the whole time you read them, cause you to live with renewed purpose and vision. When you finish reading them, you can't help but want to re-experience the encouragement and feeling of refreshment they gave.
I have been looking forward to finding something to read that would do just that for me. But I didn't want to go out and buy something. So I prayed, and God answered, through a Google search, with an incredible book that is offered in its entirety online. It is called Biblical Womanhood in the Home. Edited by Nancy Leigh DeMoss but written by various authors, including Caroline Mahaney (author of Feminine Appeal, one of my favorites). You can read it too at http://www.cbmw.org/images/onlinebooks/biblicalwomanhood.pdf.

I am trying to read a chapter each morning, so I will share the ideas each chapter provokes in me. Please take a look at the book yourself; I am absolutely loving it so far!

The introduction, written by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, explains the book by pointing out the cultural pressures placed on women to deny their place in the home in search of "liberation." This issue of the feminist movement and how it has affected the family was one of my favorite issues to study in my psychology degree. I remember reading this excerpt in my sociology class a couple years ago that really opened my eyes to the reason for the recent increase of instability in the home:

"Industrialization changed women's roles. The wife-mother had been responsible for basic food production (milk, butter, eggs, vegetables), preparation (baking and cooking), and storage (canning, salting). She also made, washed, ironed, and mended the family's clothing, cleaned the house, and took care of the children, the sick, and the elderly. As her functions were reduced, she increasingly became an 'emotional provider'; that is, the wife-mother was expected to be the stable counterpoint to the husband's pressures at work and to lavish attention on a diminishing number of children...
...As traditional roles changed, so did feelings about how things 'ought to be' between husband and wife and between parents and children...
Industrialization increased divorce. Before industrialization, divorce was rare. But with the changes just outlined, especially the reduced functions of the family and the lower birthrate, marriages became fragile...
...One of the most fundamental changes ever to affect the family - women leaving home to take paid employment - is having a major impact on this generation...That so many married women work for wages reinforces most of the trends we have discussed, especially changes in husband-wife roles, divorce, and the birthrate. It also complicates rearing children, which some consider the social problem of today's family." (Social Problems, James Henslin, 2006).

That was a text book speaking, just stating the facts. Not a conservative Christian author, just a school book objectively describing the changes a period of history brought about. But the facts speak for themselves. We all know what the state of the family is today...it's sad and frightening. I've worked with kids long enough to know this is not what family is supposed to be like. And it's really eye-opening to see what the changing roles of men and women have done to effect the state of the family. Women lost sight of their role, lost the vision that their role is vital and God-given. When they lost that, men's role was undermined and they also began questioning their own roles as leaders and providers. And every woman knows men must feel respect as a leader and provider. Children were shoved off on day care providers, schools, etc. On everyone except their own mother. Marriages started breaking up, and children were just lost in the shuffle. And now those children are growing up, having their own messed up families...and here we are.

Back to the book, DeMoss points all these facts out - that culture has been undermining women's role in the home. The Church has bought into this just as much. It just pressures women in different ways. To gain recognition and status through "ministry." Either way, women can never feel like they're doing enough if they remain in their own home. In the book's first chapter, "Feminity," Mahaney states that our identity as women is founded in the fact that God created us as women. We must not consult our culture or our feelings to find our purpose, she says. Rather, "Everything that we are and everything that we do must be rooted in God."

We have to wake up and realize that God created each of us in a certain way with a certain purpose. God created man and woman for a reason. God created marriage and parenthood for a reason. When we accept and follow the design He created for family, with each member playing out his or her role, the family becomes strong and a beautiful picture of His love. A home like this is the absolute best context for a child to grow up in. That is why families are a mess. Because we tried to design our own roles and purposes and abandoned the way God created us.

This book , and this whole concept, is really freeing! It's freeing to discover what God designed me to be, and to accept and embrace it. To see that my deepest God-given desires reflect this calling, but culture and even the church and I myself have tried to discourage those desires.

I hope you will find the same sense of freedom and encouragement as I am through this book. Please share your opinions with me. I know the issue of women's roles can be very controversial, but it is also very important. We have a serious calling, to be women that help the broken men and children, and other women, in our world. We have to step in to make a change, and to care for the ones that culture has left by the wayside. We have to go back to our roots as God's daughters, and find the security and confidence that trusting God's design for us will bring.