By Linda Nathan
My mother was a feminist who told me I was an accident. In fact, she told me that several times when I was growing up. She also told me how hard pregnancy was.
But she also took good care of me, taught me many things, and helped me go to college.
Life growing up was, probably like most people’s, a mixture.
But I grew up not wanting to marry or have children. Children, I’d learned, were “messy, a nuisance.” Babies cried all the time. Marriage was– well, it was better to be a man because men had it easier.
In the early Sixties, I became a feminist.
But by the time I was 35, my biological clock was telling me differently. Instead of having a baby though, I developed uterine cancer and was scheduled for a hysterectomy.
Then Jesus Christ came into my life. He not only saved and healed me, but He also restored our marriage and gave us a child after 15 barren years of marriage.
Join me in this podcast as I share how Jesus changed me from feminist into feminine.
Click here to listen to the broadcast at 2pm, Saturday (ET). This link will work after the show is over too.
Related:
Goddess Worship in America and How It’s Affecting the Church
Understanding the Spirituality of Sue Monk Kidd (author of The Secret Life of Bees)
(photo from bigstockphoto.com; used with permission)
That is truly a verse of immense importance to us as husbands, not only for our wives’ sakes but for our children’s, our neighbours’ and our own sakes too.
Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it. Ephesians 6:25. How many husbands could answer yes to our Lords request? Not one? Husbands read this verse every morning when you get up. Will it help?
AMEN! When pastors preach sermons emphasizing the wife’s submission to the husband as taught in the Bible, but NOT the husband’s submission to the LORD to love his wife as Christ loves the church, great harm can, and often does, result. Thank you for pointing out that truth.
Anytime Christians read the Word of God and pastors preach it, they should always, always, always read it and preach it in its full context. Taking Scripture out of context creates unbalance and can/does often cause great harm in churches, marriages, and families. I’ve seen this myself re: MANY issues in life.
James speaks of the great responsibility which Bible teachers have; they have greater accountability to the Lord than those who don’t teach. This is very significant and all pastors, preachers, and teachers should keep that in mind 24/7.
I was reared by a mother who was a feminist before her time. All the other moms in the neighborhood were home with their children during the day, but not her. She went back to work when I was six weeks old. As a child growing up, I felt abandoned all the time, could never do enough to earn her love or acceptance. It was a very hard childhood.
A lot of people would assume she had to work, but no, my dad made a good living. She just wanted to work, hated being at home “wasting time” during the day, as she admitted years later. She had “great plans” for me not to “waste” my time rearing children and taking care of my home, but to be a doctor or lawyer, somebody who made tons of money and had great status in the community.
However, I loved reading books about close families while growing up, always envied the children whose moms were at home with them. When I came to know the Lord as a young adult, I wanted to be a homemaker, wanted to take good care of my husband, children, and home.
I have no regrets about that at all. I’m thankful that although the feminist movement really took off in my generation, the Lord protected me from all the excess of it, from its ungodly focus. HE is the focus of my life! I’m so thankful for all He is and has done in my life and in the lives of my family members.
I’m sorry that you have had that experience. It is unfortunate that sometimes things in the church are taught in an imbalanced, unbiblical way that over emphasize certain teachings out of the greater context of the person and work of Christ. Also there are things that are wrongly taught as blanket statements or commands that apply to everyone the same way all the time. The Lord calls us to biblical discernment.
Of course wives are called to be submissive to their husbands, but husbands are called to be submissive, and all Christians are to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. An imbalanced emphasis on a wife’s submission without the greater context of all believers looking to Christ can create the wrong perspective. Also, there is no guarantee that a wife’s submission will create a certain response in her husband or anyone else.
Unfortunately many Christian books on marriage are just written to sell, making false claims and promises and quoting Scripture out of context.
May you find your true rest and hope in Christ as you look to Him and His sufficiency. He is the only perfect example of submission and He lives to intercede for us. What a marvelous Savior we have!
This article brings to my mind..years of abusive marriage..the ‘Christian’ book rack in a local grocery store, often carried marriage books..all were along the lines of ‘submissive wife’ teaching..if you submit,,he WILL change, improve, for the better, your marriage will be saved. In my case, they only made me feel guilty, that I wasn’t trying hard enough, to pray, read those verses, and do as per those books instructions. I finally gave up on reading ANY Christian books about marriage!! These books almost shipwrecked my faith in God..I finally got a divorce after 29 years. I still avoid church on Father’s/Mother’s Day..as I’ve heard 1 Peter 3 ‘submissive wife’ sermons on those days in church. I still struggle with this teaching..its alive and well in fundamentalist churches/pastors…