Lots To Say Tonight

alright i have gotten through another wednesday.... lol. went to women's group this morning. it is such a breath of fresh air - i am throughly enjoying the teaching by lisa bevere - Fight Like A Girl. we are watching her on dvd and i have ordered her book AND am hoping to win her workbook on ebay.... lol.

k, the storyline - women are to be women and let men be men. simple huh? but with all the gender crossing and no role models it is quite difficult to distinguish what we women are supposed to be doing, and all too often we just feel like a problem. WELL since God never made problems (we can act like one tho...), we have to get the right outlook on who we are.

the first session was based out of knowing that men are not the enemy - they are the answer and our ally. we are their answer and ally. now hold on - don't get bent out of shape.... God working through each of us = answer to someone's problem. i.e. bob is the answer to what i need and i am the answer to what he needs - the compliment. apart we have such rough edges, together (unified in God) we compliment and are strengths. and that is just a PART of what she was talking on during the first session.

second session was about no longer disliking other women. there is a weird thing that happens with women, we get competitive and look at each other with jealousy and mistrust - they are a problem and often times we look to men instead of our fellow ladies. NOW, again before getting out of hand with this one. MOST of the time women are mistrusting of each other. a lot of us ACT like a problem instead of letting God use us to be the answer. i must admit i have felt more accepted by men than by women, but i am not called to have all these great relationships with men - i have one man to have a great relationship with (and that is hard enough in itself....). i am to be able to find companionship with women - somehow, still working on this one. it is often hard to relate to other ladies and for that i need God to work in me and through me. i don't like being flaky.

third session - was a focusing on how God made man and He made woman. this culture says that we need to get rid of gender because it causes such pain. 'if men would only be more feminine and women be more masculine... then all the pain would go away.' but you can not change the basic DNA of each individual. and when you try to change what you are at the center of your being there is confusion. it is vital to find what it means to be feminine - it DOES NOT MEAN manipulating, and to be masculine does NOT mean to be dominating. there is a place to come to that is center where there is balance, strength, perspective, truth, that connection with our Creator. and since He doesn't make mistakes - you are exactly who and what you were meant to be. now to find our place. the perfect plan - man was good, but he was alone. God brought him woman, AND he gave her expression. see man had a longing but he didn't have the way to express it. and God wanted man and woman. He separated the "parts" gave them both a voice and then He put them back together in one. (this is not to leave single, widowed, or divorced out there floundering - you are one with God. but once you marry God expects both parts to become one and get it together - iron sharpening iron kind of thing. and hard... lol) woman's part was to be connection. we connect people. there are responsibilities God made for us, not for man, to carry. we elevate life, helping to make things better. we make a home, a place for peace to dwell. and this is not about being devaluing a woman anywhere she is. this is not holding the woman back from making her way in the world, this is a simple statement that women are valued, vital, we are the answer to a question in another life.

virtue qualifies leaders, not gender. leading is not about gender. gender does not qualify us for anything, God does. men need women and women need men. no matter our skills and talents we need to realize that we aren't independent of each other - we are actually interdependent of each other. strengths and weaknesses. we are equal but NOT interchangeable. and our job, to build each other in love - this happens when each person does what they are made to do. as women we have to put off our hurts and bitterness and allow God to heal us.