We all have a list of things to be intentional about. Purposeful removal of sin may or may not be on your list. Keeping your hair straight-ironed might be higher than anyone knows. Health, relationships, your creativity, or rest may be on your list. I would like to invite you to add ‘being feminine’ to your list. Some will have to be convinced that being feminine is even a good thing, because it’s been defined in their experience to be negative or just plain insignificant.
For now, put the concept of identifying, and living out of the part of you that is uniquely female into your own words. Perhaps the definition you’ve been taught seems to exclude significant parts of your personality and character. Or perhaps for you, the word feminine draws up images of long skirts and rose wall paper.
Maybe you need healing in this area, because you have been molded into something that isn’t who you were created to be so that you would be more ‘christian’. But all mass-produced people could never bring the heart of God worship or delight because we do that through our unique expression of Him. That’s what bearing His image means. Perhaps this is you. Perhaps you really hate Proverbs 31 and Titus 2 and all aspects of women’s retreats especially decoupage.
That’s allowed here.Others are neutral or very comfortable with the strictest versions of femininity. For everyone who has a position and everyone who maintains a non-position, you are welcome on this journey.
I started this journey because I wanted to step out of the smallness of my American Christianity like yesterday’s clothes. I wanted to finally find a definition of womanhood that was big enough for all times, for all people, full of grace and truth. I believe in a definition that has many faces, but isn’t inclusive at the expense of losing truth.
This journey is for people who love the truth more than being right—or at least, really want to be that way. I hope this blog will be big enough for all of you. But even if it’s not, know that God is. God is big enough for all cultures and all types of women. One of the most beautiful truths I’ve learned as I’ve just started to take in the world, is that Christianity is big enough. God restores and renews all peoples so that they become who they were created to be. I hope that as you journey into what it means to live, you will start to allow something to unfold inside of your spirit, something beautiful and deeply feminine.
1 comment:
Stephanie, you are absolutely right. There has got to be more to being feminine than wearing pink clothes and tying ribbons in your hair. What women need is a place where they can all explore what God made them to be, whether they like tea parties or paintball, or dresses or sweat pants. There has got to be mroe to what God made us than simply what our culture tells us to be!
The problem is, whenever anyone attempts to write books about Biblical femininity, even if they initally say they are going to abandon these stereotypes, they inevitably fall back on them. Rather than simply saying "women are like this because I feel like they are" or "women are like this because that is my experience with them." Is there any "hard" evidence we can fall back on? (For example, are there any things that are universal across cultures?)
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