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I love a strong female lead as much as the next gal. But I confess that lately I’ve started to zone out whenever the elf queen, secret agent, or hero assassin begins kicking down doors and taking names. Incredible fight choreographers and highly specialized stunt women make scenes like this possible. Strong role models are valuable for young girls. It’s just that leading armies and defying supervillains isn’t a complete picture of bravery…Read the full article at the Gospel Coalition.
Today we reach the final trait that I want to explore in the mothering metaphor. We’ve looked at the ways in which all women are included in the maternal tasks of nourishing and housing life, but in order to dive into the idea of nurturing life, we have to take a step back.
Housing another human is my least favorite part of mothering. It’s true, some women describe pregnancy as the time in life when they felt most beautiful. The symptoms of carrying a child can vary so widely from woman to woman that some will find they pale in comparison with the mysterious wonder of the life blooming inside. I delight in hearing these experiences. I rejoice for these women. But I am not one of them.
I have good news for those of you who really don’t vibe with all this earth mama imagery. The point of the mothering metaphor is not for us to go all Moon Goddess, track our cycles to maximize our inner seasons, and homemake everything from soap to lightbulbs.
In many seasons and for various reasons, I have seen myself in Esther—her pain, her fear, the providence of her position, and hopefully sometimes, her bravery, too. But like so many women in the Bible, she’s susceptible to the Dorothy question, “Are you a good witch or a bad witch?”
It is a sad and constant refrain throughout the Old Testament: “They have forsaken me and served other Gods.” If you are feeling forsaken right now, you are in good company. Read more at Wild Faith Co.
What’s on your must-read list right now? This is an impossible question for me to answer. While I’m proud to share that the shelf of 2019 have-reads is fairly deep so far, my pile of books-to-get-around-to continues to grow.
Repost from Cornerstone West LA. I’ve been on a bit of a reading kick lately. From novels with my Kinder moms book club and middle elementary audio books on the drive home, to parenting books by neuroscientists and heady theological commentaries on the usage of a particular Greek term prior to 312 AD—I’ve been all over the place. Somewhere between Moscow, Havana, and Ancient Israel, I got to thinking about how we read what we read as Christians. How do we decide what to read, which authors to trust, and what is worth our time?
This summer I culminated the last few years of research into a seminar for Cornerstone West LA that offers a framework for how to tackle stories in Biblical narrative, an area of Bible reading that I’ve often shied away from. I’m proud of the work it took to pull that hour and a half together, as well as the opportunity to teach the topic…
These are hard days to keep up with the news. I’m feeling a little redundant continuing to say, “No, God does not approve of violence against women…”
Both of my kiddos are now full-fledged elementary students, and with both starting new schools this year, it’s taken a month or so to feel like I have a sense of normalcy in new routines. These first few years will still involve lots of play, but as I consider what growing into their education looks like, I pray that these words from Proverbs 2:1-8 would be a guiding light…
Several weeks ago I shared a link on Facebook from Hidden Brain, a podcast I often listen to during my commute. This episode, titled "When did Marriage Become so Hard?", presented some fascinating research about cultural shifts in our understanding of marriage throughout history as well as analysis of the current trend toward high divorce rates…
It is no secret that as a young girl, I was the poster child for traditional, American femininity. My barbies had divine romances that ended in marriage. My favorite dress up dramatization was wedding. I followed the narratives of Belle and Jasmine and Ariel with an unnatural hunger, concocting for myself imaginative, desperate situations that would always end in dramatic rescue. In high school, I framed Disney movie stills and artwork above my bed. I dreamed that one day my prince would come...
Reposted from Cornerstone West LA. “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”
Yesterday morning Phil shared a verse with me that he was mulling over from Romans 12...
Silence. It is an unfortunate reality of digging through the records of women past. As we try to shed our 21st century perspective to listen to and understand what it was like to be a woman in ancient Israel, Greece, or Rome, we are confronted with one of the great tragedies of patriarchy. There is but a small body of scripture devoted to the words and stories of women because for so many generations of our world's history, these voices were largely considered unimportant...
Many Bible studies that focus on female characters in the Old or New Testament are centered around determining if she is an example to follow or a cautionary tale. But when we ask of our Dorothy, "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?", we miss the overarching theme of the story, which is always first about God and only secondarily (if at all) about the major players...
One of the gifts of working in education is that I am privy to the latest ideas, research, and trends in how we cultivate young minds. I love learning, and as a parent, I am also quite personally invested in the way our society is shaping the next generation...
As I continue to dig into what Biblical womanhood really means, I am struck by some of the more subtle feminine images that are sprinkled throughout God's Word. While not typically the focus of our early Bible education, there is actually much to be gleaned about the identity of women from the stories of scripture...
Reposted from Cornerstone West LA. I thought a lot about the women of Cornerstone when I first read Half the Church by Carolyn Custis James. I thought about friends who set aside time to counsel other women, those who welcome foster children into their homes along with the schedule disruptions and paperwork and potential heartache, and women who study deeply the Word of God so that they may bring it to bear on our souls at conferences and events.
Reposted from Cornerstone West LA. The good news narrative of God’s engagement in this world should render Christians the most hopeful of all people. Not a gee-willickers kind of hope, but the sort of deep-in-the-gut, grounding hope that can even steady those around you.
Reposted from Cornerstone West LA. Last week I wrote about modesty and its relation to 1 Peter 3:3-4...
Reposted from Cornerstone West LA. When I was in middle school, I thought that the worst thing someone could say to me was, “What are you wearing?” Because when a middle school girl asks this question, she is not really inquiring about your outfit...
First, read this. Seriously. Go read it. It's an excellent education in the history of Feminism and its relevance in culture and the church today. And it's actually much better than this post, so if you only have time for one, read what Amy has to say...
So you’ve ordered Brave and Beloved, and now you are skimming through the remarkably beautiful pages designed by Jacy Corral—perhaps you start to notice that this study looks a little different than some of the ones you’ve purchased before. Why isn’t it split into days and weeks? Why aren’t there more questions? Where are the teaching videos? Why do you ask for answers that aren’t directly found in the text? I have very specific reasons for all of these things.