Well, if you read the last resolution that I wrote, you’ll notice the vast difference in dates.  I wrote my thoughts on Resolution #1 back in November 2012 and here we are at the beginning of May 2013.

 

Part of the reason for my delay is the topic of Resolution #2: Biblical Femininity.  WOW!  This was a hard section to get through.  Not necessarily in reading it, but understanding it enough to cultivate my thoughts on how to write about it.  I have now read this section three times!

 

I read it the other day, the third time, and it finally felt like I had some clarity on the subject.  In the world we live in today, it’s hard to balance out the culture of women to keep true to biblical aspects, while living in today’s world of post-feminist ways.

 

Women have not only come a long way from the destructive views that men have placed on us and our place in society, but we’ve also come a long way away from the role God placed on women when He created us.

 

Genesis 1:27 says, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female He created them.”

 

Being a woman is not a curse.  God didn’t create man to be above or over women.  Yet over time, women have been pushed aside and treated as lesser people.  This was not God’s design.  God’s design for women and the purpose He had when we were created was to come alongside man and be his equal, his partner and his helper.

 

In the book, the author writes, “A Christian woman must resolve to go against the tide.  She must stand for what she believes based on her confidence in the One who has delivered eternal truth to her in writing.  She must return to God’s design and definition for women and then joyfully embrace, accept and experience its blessings.”

 

This is how I want to live my life…by God’s design; the design that He created just for me.  One of those designs is the husband that God brought into my life.  Now we both have the opportunity to live our lives as God designed, as equals.

 

But, God also had another design or plan to help us live our lives the way He intended and it’s called submission.  Submission doesn’t mean that we are giving up ourselves, the freedom to think for ourselves or devaluing any part of ourselves.  Most people hear the word submission and cringe because it’s been taken out of the context in which it was created.  It’s been taken as a way for men to have authority over women, for employees to cower to their employers or for leaders to wield certain expectations from their followers.

 

Submission was never created or meant to be harmful to women or anyone else.  Submission is defined as a decision to yield to people, precepts and principles that have been placed in our lives as authorities.   Yes, submission does give someone authority over us, but not power. 

 

Let’s take my marriage as an example.  My husband has authority over me as God has authority over him.  My husband could look to the world for how he should exert his authority over me, but he doesn’t.  He looks to God for how submission in our marriage should look.  And it looks the way God created it be…for me to be his equal, his partner and his helper.  When big decisions have to be made in our family, my husband doesn’t just make the decision and move on.   He asks for my input because we are partners.  Do we always have the same opinion on issues and situations?  No.  Sometimes we agree on issues and sometimes we don’t.  But since God has given him the authority in our marriage, it’s my husband’s job to make the final call on the decision to be made.  I may not always like the decision that’s been made, but I respect my husband and the position that God has placed him in so I support it regardless of my feelings.

 

When we all live and work under submission as it was created, it “provides a framework in which our potential can truly flourish.”  Submission is a choice.  We can choose to live true to it and the role it should have in our lives or to rebel against it and live with the consequences that brings.  

 

In resolving to champion the biblical model for womanhood, we must recognize that we are God’s creation, created in His image and powered by His love and grace.  It doesn’t matter how the world views women and their place in society.  It matters how our Creator sees us and that we choose to live our life for Him.

 

Freedom and peace await “every woman who aligns herself with God’s design.”  What kind of woman are you going to be?