International Women's Day

Apparently, yesterday was International Women's Day. Personally, I view this as a little piece of nonsense. I'm not sure why we feel the need to almost deify our gender, to blow our accomplishments out of all normal proportion, but there is something to be said for knowing your place and staying in it.

I am not a feminist in the most popular sense of the word, but I do believe women have unrecognized power. Unrecognized by ourselves alone. I think we should be capitalizing on the power with which God in His sovereign wisdom has endowed us, but sadly, we want, not our own, but someone else's power. I think this a sad state of affairs.

I understand that there is oppression and exploitation of women all over the world today, but this is true for many people groups, cultures, and races, not just women. I think the biggest offenders in this area are women themselves. We have exploited and oppressed ourselves beyond anything a man could ever accomplish because of our refusal to recognize and rejoice in God's created order.

Or course there are days when I think "boys are dumb!", because, well, they sometimes are, but there are just as many days when I have to acknowledge my own sin against God; my rebellion against the way in which He created me to function; my inate "dumbness" (read: sin).

But getting back to the whole "power of women" thing, I took some time yesterday to dwell on the women who are, in my estimation, the most powerful. I would say that truthfully, I have grown up in a matriarchal society. The women in my family are powerful. As I think about my ancestors on both sides I see that the men have been mostly flakes. In fact, a few days ago I was looking up my original maiden name (before I was adopted at age nine) and a picture of my uncle Frank popped up. He is a sex offender. My dad died when I was five because he was a drug addict and an alcoholic. The man my mother married when I was seven (and who later adopted me) is a porn addict who allowed his sin to destroy his marriage. I have heard stories of my grandfathers and great-grandfathers who were emotionally, sexually, and physically abusive to their wives and children. The women in my family have had to be strong to survive.

There have been no feminists in my family though. Only women of quiet simple faith resolved to do the right thing, even when it resulted in their own harm. They haven't been perfect, not by a long shot, but they have been faithful. My mother loves to tell us stories of her grandmother, Jessie, for whom my little sister is named. A woman who was married to a difficult man, but who was a woman of prayer. My mother is sure that she loves Jesus because of her grandmother's prayers. And I love Jesus because my mother loves Him, and so on. In His grace He has used the prayers of these righteous women to result in many physical and spiritual children.

I am thankful for such a godly heritage of women who knew their place and stayed in it, and not just my own family members, but my many spiritual mothers as well. I have been ridiculously blessed in this area. These women had (and have) such power over future generations because they submitted themselves in humility to God's plan for them. I pray that I am like them.

I have great hope, not only for the women in my family, but for my brothers as well. Truthfully, I pray for them more than I pray for my sisters, because I have a sneaking suspicion that Satan wants them more. I don't want to see another generation of men in my family weakened by sin and devoid of purpose, so I do what I can do as a woman to help them. I don't bash men simply for being men, but I point out what is true of all of us - we are sinners. Our problem is not our gender, but our nature. I strive to live out biblical womanhood before them so that they know what it looks like, and one day will marry a woman who will not be subordinate to them in their humanity, but mutually submissive to them in obedience to God's design.

There is great power in womanly submission, not only to husbands, but to God. I pray that more and more women tap into this power but it's too late. Happy International Women's Day!