You know…you’re title. When someone asks you what you do, how do you say it? And, why do you say what you say?
I’ve just been wondering…I think it’s interesting that we need a title.
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Posts tagged as:
womanhood
Last night at the dinner table the Miss USA pageant came up. As you might have heard Miss California was asked the controversial question of the year by celebrity gossip columnist Perez Hilton,
Vermont recently became the 4th state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit. Why or why not?
Her response was,
Well I think its great that Americans are able to choose one or the other,” she said. “We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And you know what, in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be between a man and a woman. Thank you very much. (see article)
We spent a little time discussing how this is reverse discrimination. But my husband, Joe, brought up another topic. His question was, Is this the face we want representing Christianity?
It wasn’t a personal attack against Miss California, Carrie Prejean, but He said, “Sure what she did was right, but is that what we want representing our beliefs and our values?” For clarity, he’s talking about how she was dressed (and the donning of a skimpy bikini parading around for the world to see).
He continued, “Is she what we want the world to see when they see Christianity? Is she modeling what it means to be a godly woman? What is she wearing say about women?”
It sounds harsh, I know, but if someone says they’re a Christian and are striving to live as a light in a dark world, then shouldn’t they live a life unconformed to the world?
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2, NASB
Now, I don’t know Miss California personally so I can’t speak on her character, but just doing a Google search to find an article about the pageant
and Miss California a plethora of pictures came up as results. And let me just say they weren’t the sweet ones you find on San Diego Christian College’s news article.
It’s hard to take seriously her Christian testimony, when her own photos look like they belong in a Maxim magazine, no joke.
Here’s the crux that we all deal with from time to time: being in the world and not of it. Being ambassadors of Christ and not looking like what’s paraded across the covers of magazines. It’s knowing that everything you do and say is a representation of not only what you believe about God, but also how the world sees God by what you do and say.
As Christians, we’re held to a high standard. What we say we believe must align with what God’s Word says. The issue of Miss California’s wardrobe is how it contradicts with what the Bible says,
Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments,but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness.1 Timothy 2:9-10
I know this is a loaded verse and all its implications and how we apply it, which is for another day. The reminder for us is to remember that everything we do is a representation of God and His Kingdom.
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Lately, I’ve been struggling with feeling that I’m not doing enough. I’ll plan my day and be very productive in the morning, but around one o’clock I begin to question myself.Did I do enough? Did I spend too much time browsing blogs? Should I have organized my sewing mess or baking? Was I productive enough?
And so on…
I’m a very performance-based person. Do things right. Do them on time. Do them perfectly. It’s something God has been working on with me, sometimes more forcefully than others. But as I’m making the transition from part-time teacher/wife/homemaker to full-time wife/homemaker (and mom) I’ve become more aware of how often I question how I spent my day and am seeing the danger in it as I approach this new season of life. If I continue to spend my mornings in productivity and my afternoons doubting if I did anything worthwhile I know I’ll go crazy and dig myself into selfish despair.
But this week I found some encouragement amidst my blogs.
Girl Talk has been doing a series on homemaking and two of their posts really spoke to me: Not Her Best and More Like Christ. Here’s a little tidbit, but definitely read the full posts:
Twentieth century British author G.K. Chesterton has liberating insight for all homemakers who feel pressure to excel in something besides homemaking. In an essay entitled “The Emancipation of Domesticity” he observed that woman is a “general overseer” in the home, and as such, she must be able to do many things well—she shouldn’t have to worry about being “the best” at something. Read here
Quoted from Noel Piper’s Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God:
Perhaps the deepest underlying personal factor in Helen’s tension was the need she felt to do her very best and, if possible, to be the very best. God called her to Africa where that was not possible. There were continuing lessons for her: learning to treat malaria by symptoms rather than with prescribed lab tests, having to operate without having been trained as a surgeon, needing to make bricks rather than spending the day with patients.
Perhaps that is an issue for some of us–struggling with the reality that God has called us to do less than we want to do or less than what we believe is best. [...] When God called Helen to less than she expected, he was helping her become like Christ, rather than like the best doctor or missionary she knew of. Who is it we want to be like?” (p. 172) Read here
And then, Simple Mom had a guest post from Small Notebook, and do you want to guess what it’s about?
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