Grace for Women

What does grace look like, on a woman?

Some may say the same as a man. I don't know this to be true, for certain. 

I know we're all the same in our broken humanity, but maybe the shattered bits of the feminine soul look different than the shattered bits of a masculine one. 

Both genders are broken by sin, but can the same weapon create different wounds? 

And when grace heals these shattered soul-bits, and brings wholeness to those wounds, might this look different too? 

I think so. 

It never will be clear and cut and dry: the dance between masculine & feminine and the history of pain and power that each gender carries; and you can rest assured that women have had their power as well as pain, and men have had their pain as well as power. 

But my heart, what she wants to know is what grace looks like on a woman. 

Grace, it's realizing there's a way out of our mess, a way that Someone Else already has completely figured out.

And she doesn't have to think through details and clean up last-minute messes and hold her breath and weary-wish that nothing goes wrong.

A way that not only allows her to give up control, but requires it.   

So what does it look like, for a woman to know that?

To know that she wears a white-righteous robe that doesn't come with binding numbers because grace doesn't reduce your identity to a waste size. And you wouldn't believe the accessories that come with this one: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, & self-control.

To know that what is passed down from generation to generation can dictate the color of her eyes & the shape of her nose, but her emotions and mind and heart are all her own and that spiritual genes always trump physical ones.

To know that this grace was a gift from a Man, and that Man sees the robe and the redeemed emotions, mind & heart and He sees soul-beauty. And His gaze and His arms and His hands and His words are all safe...

Wisdom, she dances through Proverbs, and I wonder if she could be the "after" picture of a woman made-over and worked-over by grace.

I wonder much, but I know this: Grace... Grace looks good on a woman.

In Need of Some Inspiration

My friend and I are teaching a workshop on Biblical Femininity this summer. You can read some of my journey with this subject here.

The point of this post is not to externally process even more, but rather to get your feedback. 

First, because I was very humbled when my friend and I sat down and realized that even two different perspectives are a limitation, because femininity includes all women, and all women are, in fact, very different. (Shocking, I know.) 

Second, because I know the people that read this blog are brilliant (obviously, since you read my posts) and I respect your opinions. 

Quick nutshell of the class: (If any LT-ers who signed up for the class are reading this... it may be a spoiler.) 

The overarching purpose is to restore dignity to femininity, to sift through our perceptions of it and maybe ferret out a few of the negative ones that are based out of our culture rather than the Bible. My friend and I have no expectation to conquer the entire topic OR, once the four-week workshop is over, except all the people taking it to have arrived at what it means to be a woman of God and in God in the fullest sense. 

The teachers are young and the female heart way too deep a matter to take care of all that. 

What I'm hoping to get your help with, is your thoughts, opinions, experiences, etc. on our first week's topic. 

Beauty as a female Christ-follower.  

Questions we'll be asking the girls: 

- What word or picture first comes to mind when you hear the word "beauty?" 

- What emotion first comes to mind? 

- Why is it so important for us to hammer this topic out, anyway? 

Questions my friend and I have been asking ourselves: 

- Is outward beauty biblical? 

- What does a "gentle & quiet spirit" really mean? (I Peter 3.1-7) ** I looked up the greek, and as far as my not-able-to-understand-biblical-greek mind can tell, it may literally mean, "a spirit that withholds unnecessary strength that may harm and is tranquil or peaceful."**

- What's the balance between immodesty for attention & hiding your physical femininity out of fear or pride? 

- Queen Esther was able to save her people, not completely but in part, because of her physical beauty... right? 

- How can we seriously, really, I mean REALLY, stop comparing ourselves to other women? 

Okay... that's all the rough bits for now. We each have our own stories with this topic, and maybe I'll get around to posting mine later this week, but for now, I'd love your thoughts! If you'd rather not post them, feel free to email me. 

p.s. I'd love the male perspective, as well. 

I am Woman, Hear me Seek Him

The concept of Biblical femininity frightens and fascinates me.

I've read books about women's roles & identity. I've heard teachings about gender differences & gender similarities. I've run to gender stereotypes for their familiar safety & simultaneously resented them for their limitations. 

This past year I have vacillated between whether or not this topic is really worth the Church's mental, emotional, & spiritual efforts; and being sure that the concepts of femininity (& masculinity) must be discussed and pressed into within the bounds of the Bible and the Body, because the world certainly isn't hesitating to define the strengths and weaknesses of both, and at precious cost to many, many souls. 

I choose to focus on femininity not because I think men don't matter OR because women have suffered from lack of attention, but rather because I am a woman; and, the journey the Lord has taken me on to become the creation He intended has caused me to ask what the loaded word, "female," really means. 

What does it mean in a world where fallen humanity's thirst for power and control has caused men and women to abuse each other, to leave each other in the dust, to wash our hands of the other half of the population and write them off as "weak," "insensitive," "neanderthals," "illogical," etc. 

What does it mean in a world where the level of sexual exploitation is horrific, from nine-year-old girls being forced into sexual slavery to seeing advertisements & media that I resent as a woman and a wife. 

I look to the character of God, and am left knowing that somewhere (the Garden?), something (the fall?) went deeply wrong in the souls of men & women, because what I see in the world cannot be what He intended. 

And if I, as a Christian, believe that we are experiencing a partial fulfillment of His Kingdom; that one of my key roles is to be a witness that living in this Kingdom brings freedom; that God created both male and female to simultaneously celebrate their differences and find rest in their similarities; and I realize that this vital aspect of His creation is under attack, than why wouldn't I care to do something about it? To be moved to protect and be a faithful steward of femininity and masculinity in the ways the Lord has called & gifted me to? 

One reason for this passion is that I've experienced a community where respect & honor of both genders are thriving and active. A community that doesn't claim perfection, but approaches this topic with humility and seeks the grace of God as they try to figure it out. The Lord has brought much healing to this woman's wearied heart through them. I have this passion because I've experienced the hope of what men & women living under Christ really looks like. 

And in all this, my heart arrives at a place of humility, where I go before the One Creator of both male & female, and ask what He intended for His daughters. 

That, as His daughter, I may continue to press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me, and ask to be allowed the grace to help others do the same.