Leap Year Feminism February 29, 2008

Today is February 29th, Leap Day, and it only occurs once every four years. There are lots of fun things you can do with your children to celebrate this unusual day. Check out THIS SITE to get started!

With all the talk of how Feminism has seeped into our way of thinking, I found this victorian cartoon depicting a Leap Year Tradition quite fitting for our Friday Favorite. This demonstrates once again our sinful desire as women to take control of any and all situations – even the marriage proposal! Happy Leap Day!

New Application February 28, 2008

As we have been hearing about Biblical Womanhood over the last couple of weeks in our Ladies’ School of the Word, I have found myself listening with new ears. You see up until now, when I have heard teachings on this topic, I have listened for myself. But now with my first little girl on the way, the reality is beginning to hit me that I will be responsible for not only teaching these things to little Ella, but also demonstrating them in every day life! As we have always heard, “more is caught than taught.”

There is a new awareness in my heart of wanting to apply these truths so that I will be a good example of a godly woman to my little girl. How will she observe my interactions with her Daddy? Will she see me desiring to complement him, or compete with him? Will she see me seek to serve him or see me being selfish? And what about the times when I don’t get my way – will I be teaching her a course of “Manipulation 101″ or will she see me humbly submit? What a huge responsibility! I know that it is something that I cannot do on my own, but I will NEED the Lord to help me.

Lord, thank You for creating specific roles for us. Help me to continue to learn my role as a woman, a wife and a mother – as biblically defined. I want to glorify You in how I live my life and how I teach my little girl. Thank You that you have promised to help me in the things you have called me to do.

Posted by Stephanie

Examining My Thoughts February 27, 2008

In listening to Sheree’s excellent teaching on The History of Feminism in the Society and The Church, I realize that I give in to a feminist’s viewpoint more often than I knew. I rarely vocalize this view because, like Sheree shared, “We, at Metro, have been taught so well!” But, the way that I process disappointments either from my husband or my children, or even reflecting back on my adult relationship with my Dad, I see a willingness to give in to thinking of myself in a more superior way. I’ve often thought that my main struggle was with pride, anger and a desire for control; but now I’m seeing how much of these sins have grown in the soil of feminism. It’s so hard to admit that, much more to blog about it!

I was born in 1959 – smack in the middle of the rise of feminism. I took co-ed shop classes and learned about birth control in my child development class. I even owned Helen Reddy’s album “Long Hard Climb”! My Mom had to work with my Dad at our family Pharmacy, so often I was left to learn about life and interpret it on my own. I was the first one in our family to quit working at the Pharmacy because I couldn’t get along with my Dad! Rather than pursue his godly leadership in my life, I did what I wanted to do regardless of what the Bible said. I see now how God protected me from absorbing a full blown belief in feminism, but I’m realizing that there is much feminist thinking that has made it’s way into my thought patterns.

How kind of God to reveal this to me. How kind of Him to continually pursue my sinful heart towards repentance and change. I am 48 years old – a daughter, wife, mother and grandmother, yet I still have much to learn in regards to Biblical Womanhood. By His Grace at work in my heart, I pray that I will continue to respond to the correction of the Holy Spirit. May we all embrace this season of fighting nominalism (in name only) and become women who truly glorify God in all we think, say and do, so that the church might shine more brightly in this ever darkening world.

Posted by Debi

Anything you can do….I can do better… February 26, 2008

It all started for me in the 4th grade when our little school did a rendition of “Annie Get Your Gun”. Here are some of the lyrics from the “theme” song:

Anything you can do I can do better

I can do anything better than you

No you can’t

Yes I can

No you can’t

Yes I can

Or who could forget the song, “You can’t get a man with a gun” Then, a few years later I was in Shop class. We had one semester of Home Economics and one semester of Shop. I had to make sure that I wore my hair back, no jewelry, and no fluffy shirts. That year I made a bookcase and jewelry box for my mom.

Did these things cause me to have a feminist mentality in my late 20′s? No, I think I would have to trace that back to Eve! There is indwelling sin in my heart to where I a lot of times I am competing with God’s design for my life. He created me to complement, not compete with my husband. In looking back to different things over the years I realize that I am not exempt from the influences of the world. This series has been a wake up call for me ~ it has helped me see that I need to fight and put to death sins in my heart of contention, superiority and arrogance that I wasn’t so much aware of.

By God’s grace I want my children to see in me a heart and disposition towards God as one who embraces what He has called me to as His daughter.

Posted by Taraleigh

Culture’s Effect On Me February 25, 2008

As I listened to Sheree speak last week, I found myself continually wondering how feminism has seeped into my life and affected much of what I do and believe. One particular quote struck me and caused me to begin to see my life from a different perspective.

“The young people of their generation had been made the laboratory mice for the numerous social experiments of the past 20 years; infant day care and no-fault divorce, textbooks illustrated with little girls flying planes and little boys doing the vacuuming; coed shop classes instead of home economics, the frank discussions about [birth control] with the high school gym teachers. Their brains, meanwhile, had been irradiated with the mishmash of feminist cultural messages from the proudly menstruating teenage heroines of Judy Blume novels to the supportive articles about single mothers in the Sunday life-style section to the audience applause on Donahue for the woman who left her husband and three kids in Minnesota to realize herself as a potter in Santa Fe.

The women I had interviewed had neither adopted nor rejected feminism. Rather, it had seeped into their minds like intravenous saline into the arm of an unconscious patient. They were feminists without knowing it.”

I am of that generation. These things were all a part of my growing up. Add to that the fact that neither of my parents were believers and wholeheartedly embraced the feminist movement. All of these things were the norm to me and I never even questioned their validity. I have never really thought about this before or particularly the effect it has on me today. Once I became a believer, did all the effects of the culture just disappear from my life? I wish it were so, but I don’t think so.

Now I must begin to examine my life more closely and see how these things have seeped into my mind and how they are causing me today to sin. What is motivating my attitude toward men, my husband in particular? Are some of my sinful responses and attitudes caused by a feminist influence that I did not even realize existed in me any longer? I would guess that would be true. And I pray that the Lord will help me to see how this is influencing my life and to turn from it and hold on to the Truth.

Posted by Elyse

Favorite Devotional Worship Song February 22, 2008

For our Friday Favorite today, I thought I would share with you one of my favorite worship songs that always brings me back to what’s most important in life — being still in God’s presence.  Maybe today you’re feeling overwhelmed after an especially difficult week, or maybe you just need a reminder that God is the only One who completely understands our weaknesses and temptations to sin, and continually offers us hope for tomorrow.  He has promised to complete the work He’s begun in us and in our children.  May you be encouraged as you read and meditate on these lyrics from the song titled Still by Watermark.  (Click on the title to go to a sample page of the music selections on this album)

The more I get alone
The more I see I need to get alone more, more
Cause just when I think that I’m alone
Your Spirit calls out to me
And even silence has a song
Cause that’s when you come
Sing over me

Still, let me be still
Let me be OK
With the quiet in my heart
Still, I want to be still
I’m so quick to move
Instead of listening to you
Shut my mouth
Crush my pride
Give me the tears
Of a broken life,
Still

Oh this world, it falls around me
And flutters all it’s beauty in my eyes
But let me choose the solitude
Simplicity has always simply changed my life
Cause even stillness makes me move
Cause that’s when my heart
Learns to dance with you

Still, let me be still
Let me be OK
With the quiet in my heart
Still, I want to be still
I’m so quick to move
Instead of listening to you
I’m your child
Tame my heart
Obedience
To me impart
Still

La la la la la, Hold me
La la la la la, Cleanse me
La la la la la, Change me, Oh God
Change me while I am
Still, let me be still
And know that you are God
And you are always enough
Still, I want to be still
To take all that I am
And simply lift it up

Shut my mouth
Crush my pride
Give me the tears
Of a broken life,
Still

Eve’s Temptation and Ours February 19, 2008

Think about Adam and Eve for a moment.  Eve lived in paradise with a perfect (potentially anyway) husband.  She was even able to walk and talk with God Himself!  In every way, her life was flawless and joyful.

Then she was tempted to want to be like God and listened to the tempter questioning His love and wisdom.  She chose to exert selfish influence over her husband who affirmed her unwillingness to submit to God and stay under the protective covering of his leadership.

Hmmm..sound at all familiar?  Have you ever been discontent with what the Lord has provided you?  Resented His provision?  Interpreted His loving care and protection as limiting?  Sought to manipulate your husband to join you in fulfilling your own greedy cravings for more?  Walked out from under the God-ordained protective leadership of your husband and made choices you later regretted?

These are some of the ways our own sin nature — along with the tempting lies of the enemy of our soul — influences and deceives us.

Give that some thought today.  Ask the Lord to show you any ways an unbiblical view of womanhood has made it easy for you to resist or resent His wisdom in creating you uniquely and wonderfully female!  Since the Garden of Eden we ladies have had the sinful tendency to want to selfishly control our husbands.  Some of us do this in obvious ways…while others of us make it harder to see. (More about that next week.)

We all remain in need of a Savior to convict and forgive us of our sin.  And as we consider what this sin looks like currently in our lives, let’s remember to take ten looks at the cross for every look at our sin.

Because of the sinless life, atoning death and glorious resurrection of Jesus we have forgiveness and hope for change!

What comfort for those of us who want to take an honest and hard look at how feminism remains a live temptation in our hearts.

I am Woman, Hear me…Roar??? February 18, 2008

As we discussed yesterday, we’ve been in a series on “The Battle for Biblical Womanhood” at Metro. In order to understand the present and future, we’ve needed to take a good look at the past.

In her message the first week, Sheree talked about a song that was the “theme song” for the growing feminist movement in the 1970′s. It won a grammy in 1972 and was sung by Helen Reddy. (Those of you in your late 40′s or older are probably already humming the tune.)

The thought of “I am woman hear me roar in numbers too big to ignore” was a comical one for the younger ladies in the room who have grown up in Christian homes with godly mothers who provided a model of biblical womanhood.

“I am strong! I am invincible! I am WOMAN!” has hardly been the theme of many of our lives. Yet we are seeing that just because we haven’t been educated about the feminist movement or never marched with the National Organization of Women, we are still sinners. The same roots of pride and selfish ambition — along with arrogant temptations toward attitudes of superiority over our husbands and fathers — sometimes rage in our own hearts.

Understanding the roots and dangers of an unbiblical approach to womanhood helps us to uncover and resist its affects in our lives. These dangers may not be evident, but can have serious consequences, not only in our lives but also in future generations as well.

What are some of those dangers? We’ll take a look at at these starting tomorrow.

Surely I’m not a Feminist!

At Metro we are doing our yearly Ladies School of the Word series.  This year our pastors wanted us to study something related to the series they are doing on detecting and avoiding nominalism (Christians “in name only”).  We are learning so much as the Holy Spirit shows us areas in our hearts where we are too comfortable with intellectually assenting to biblical truth without actually living it.

As ladies, we are looking at the issue of evangelical feminism in our series, “The Battle for Biblical Womanhood.”  Last week we were introduced to the purpose of this series:

“To educate ourselves about the history of the women’s movement in our society and in the church; to expose ways in which we have been negatively affected by unbiblical aspects of the women’s movement; and to embrace God’s design for biblical womanhood for His glory!”

The message opened with a scriptural foundation of numerous verses, but this one stuck out from Romans 12:2:

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – - his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

This week and next we will be sharing some of what we’ve learned, both academically and personally.  Please join us for this informative and probably convicting dialogue!!

The Cost of Gasoline! February 15, 2008

Are you feeling the crunch of high gas prices? We can be grateful that it hasn’t gone this far!  Have a great weekend!