Celebrate Well-Behaved Women Making History!

Morgan Farr is a woman of strength and wisdom. I always enjoy her unique insights. In this Biblical Womanhood UPGRADE during Women's History Month, she points to women in biblical history who have made a difference."Did you know," Morgan says, "that one of the most famous women’s empowerment quotes is actually a twisting of praise for Christian women?"

That question certainly piqued my (Dawn's) interest!

Morgan continues . . .

We are in the middle of the month of March, which means that if you hop onto any social media platform you will likely be bombarded with the celebration of women from across the globe. It's Women’s History Month.

Quotes from famous women, quotes about world-changing women, and quotes celebrating women are flying across social media at the moment.

But one in particular stands out to me:

“Well-behaved women seldom make history.”

We see this quote on pins, stickers, and water bottles. It is often used as a sort of rallying cry for women to behave badly, which is a bit ironic, given the source.

This quote actually came from an academic paper published by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. She was talking about the funeral sermons of Christian women.

I want to share how to upgrade your walk with well-behaved women who made history.

The idea behind Ulrich’s quote is that the women who live quiet lives tend to be overlooked by history, not that women should be poorly-behaved in order to make history.

At first, we want to react against this, but even in the Christian culture, it is the women who stepped out of line that are most often remembered.

In preparation for this article, I did a social media poll and asked my followers to name five women in the Bible.

These were the names I got and who they are:

• Eve ate the fruit from the forbidden tree (Genesis 3:6).
• Sarah laughs at the idea that she would get pregnant in her old age (Genesis 18:10-15).
• Rahab was a prostitute (Joshua 2:1).
• Bathesheba was married when she was taken by King David, who then murdered her husband (2 Samuel 11:2-17).
• Mary was pregnant out of wedlock (Luke 1:26-35).
• Ruth bucked tradition by following her mother-in-law (Ruth 1:8-22).
• Esther challenged a king (Esther 4:1-14; 5:1-8; 7:1-10; 8:1-16).

All of these women stand out in some way because of their stories.

Initially I was going to use the word salacious or maybe scandalous stories, but really, these women just had big stories. They are the major names that people think of with the term “women in the Bible.''

After that things start to get a little fuzzy and people really have to stretch for the names of other women.

Understanding Bible history and how women interact with it matters.

I find that knowing the Bible helps me in my everyday walk with Christ. Being a constant student of the Word is a crucial aspect of our faith. We are told in Ecclesiastes 1:9 that there is nothing new under the sun. If I am struggling with something in my life, looking to the Bible can help me see next steps and to make decisions.

Consider some examples of faithful women who followed God’s call for their lives, even with the threat of death.

These women do not often have entire Bible studies written about them unlike many of the women listed above, but their contributions to Christianity show that God’s plan is perfect, even if it doesn’t seem like it.

1. Shiphrah and Puah

These ladies were midwives who bravely stood up to Pharaoh when he ordered the murder of children (Exodus 1:15-21).

2. Deborah

She was a prophet and a judge who led Israel with honor and integrity when she stepped into a leadership vacuum (Judges 4:4-24; 5:1-31).

3. Priscilla

She was a tentmaker who traveled with her husband to share the gospel and invited Paul into her home (Acts 18:1-3, 18-19, 26).

4. Lydia

Lydia was a gentile woman. She was at a prayer gathering when Paul and Timothy came to preach, and she converted to Christianity. She led her family to Christ and used her wealth as a textile merchant to support the early church (Acts 16:12-15, 40).

5. Joanna

She followed Jesus after He healed her, she supported the apostles, stayed with Jesus when crowds turned against him, stayed during the crucifixion, and went to the tomb where she was one of the first to learn of Jesus’ resurrection (Luke 8:1-3; 23:49, 55-56; and 24:1-10).

What can we learn from these ladies?

• When a boss asks you to do something that goes against your scruples? Shiphrah and Puah.
• When you want to be involved in the church but you don’t know how? Take a note from Priscilla and open your home.
• Does your church support missions? Lydia would tell you to give generously.

Of course, none of this is to say that we as women cannot learn from men in the Bible, or that men can’t learn from women in the Bible. But when my four-year-old daughter asked why the stories in her children’s Bible are mostly about boys, I am now able to tell her of the women who have made a difference in our faith—women she can look up to, women she can follow as they followed God.

For all of the women we listed today, there are thousands, millions even, who faithfully lived out the call that God had for their lives without ever having their name recorded.

It can be easy in the drudgery of everyday life to wonder if your life has meaning, if you are making a difference.

Remember:

When you are loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength while loving your neighbor as yourself, you are working for the Lord.

Your daily walk with Him matters.

In this month of celebrating women’s history, we celebrate the well-behaved women who are making history today.

What woman in your history made a difference in your life?

Morgan Farr is a succulent-cultivating, book nerd, aspiring author. She spends her days homeschooling her four young children and training her working dogs. As an Army wife, Morgan has learned to lean heavily on Jesus as she walks out military life. She is the Director fo Publishing at Planting Roots, a minitry for military women and wives. You can connect with Morgan on all major social media channels using her handle: morgandfarr.

Graphic adapted, courtesy of Aaron Burden at Unsplash.

Why Does Rejection Feel So Bad?

Kathy Collard Miller continually turns women to the Word of God to find truth to combat the lies they might believe. In this Spiritual Growth UPGRADE, she helps us focus in on the truth about rejections.

"Rejection," Kathy says, "hits like an atom bomb in our soul."

Boom! I (Dawn) have felt the powerful impact of rejection over my entire life. But I've learned over the years how to counter the reality of rejection and my brokenness because of it—with God's truth. That's something Kathy' espouses too.

Kathy continues . . .

Recently I felt sick in the depths of my stomach and my soul when I felt rejected.

Personal rejection can be described as someone refusing to accept what we offer them or they believe something bad about us.

We feel attacked and misunderstood. It can be a very hopeless feeling.

Here are three points for hope.

1.  We can understand where the feelings of rejection originated.

Rejection can bring up the lies we believed or felt about us in childhood. In that moment, we feel as if we’re back being that little girl or boy when we felt horrible, because we were attacked emotionally or physically.

It feels like all the resources and truth we know as adults about God are thrown out the window and we’re back to being voiceless, powerless, or without defense. The feelings are the same even though the situation is different.

In those moments, God offers hope through assuring us we aren’t the child any longer—thinking God isn’t there for us.

Instead, the truth is, God promises to be our refuge, help, protector, and give unconditional love.

We may not see evidence of that like we’d prefer, but by faith we can tell ourselves our loving Savior is “for” us and is defending us more than we realize.

2. Rejection most often comes because the other person feels threatened in some way.

Most of the time, she is reacting out of her own pain or even feeling rejected or worthless herself.

Even if we made a mistake or react in a hurtful way, she is responsible before God to offer grace because He has forgiven her for so much and He offers the strength she needs to make a wise choice.

But so many of us respond to and are responded to by others out of past wounds. Unfortunately, we take the person’s attack personally and blame ourselves.

Certainly we can take responsibility for our wrong choices but regardless, the other person is responsible for their response too. God wants to empower us to not take the attack personally but to offer an example of God’s grace of unconditional love. It is possible.

3. Rejection is the feeling of our worth and value being dismissed.

We believe the rejection is valid, because we believe the lie someone else believes: “She is worthless,” “He is stupid,” “She has nothing of worth to offer,” and many other lies.

But those are lies created by Satan against God’s beloved creation.

We must look primarily to God for who He says we are, not other people.

Not only were each of us created with God’s stamp of “good” at creation, even in our sin He demonstrates we are important and loved by Him through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. That act determines we are never rejected or reject-able by God.

In the first chapter of Ephesians, He says the opposite of rejection.

He says we are:

• loved,
• forgiven,
• blessed,
• redeemed,
• accepted,
• adopted,
• and many other truths of our identity.

Only believing those truths will counteract the atom bomb going off in our soul and minds when we feel rejected.

Indeed, our audience of One—God Himself—is still seeing us “in Christ” regardless of another person’s opinions.

Jesus demonstrated that many times.

• Jesus refused to believe the rejection of His own family who believed Him crazy (Mark 3:21).
• Jesus didn’t respond to the rejection of the Pharisees, His own disciples, and even the betrayal of Judas and Peter.

He knew His identity as God.

Even as a human, Jesus depended on who His Father said He was.

That’s our challenge also.

Which point will you focus on the next time you feel rejected?

Kathy Collard Miller is the author of more than 50 books including Choices of the Heart: Daughters of the King Bible Study Series. She is a popular women's conference speaker both nationally and internationally. Visit KathyCollardMiller.com. Kathy lives in Southern California with her husband Larry (of 45+ years). They have two children and two grandchildren.

Graphic adapted, courtesy of comfreak at Pixabay.

How to Enhance Your Femininity

Morgan Farr has explored the topic of femininity and biblical womanhood extensively on her blog, and I asked her to write a Womanhood UPGRADE for us.

Morgan asks an important question: "Do you stand out as a woman of God or do you blend in with the world?"

For some time now, I (Dawn) have thought about the images the secular media feeds girls and women about what it means to be a woman, and I've grieved over the confusion and heartache I see in so many women's lives. So I truly appreciate Morgan's insight.

Morgan continues ...

God called us to be set apart and I believe that calling has more to it than just going to church on Sunday. I believe that our lives should be a testament to His glory. One of the most basic ways that we can praise God’s magnificence is in being who He made us to be … women!

Proverbs is chock full of excellent examples of how both men and women should behave, potential pitfalls, and rewards that come from working in the sphere of influence to which God assigned you.

God designed men to be masculine and women to be feminine.

It sounds so easy. If you are female, just be feminine ... right?

Unfortunately, we live in a fallen world.

On one hand, this world encourages androgyny between the sexes; on the other hand, it celebrates an unattainable hyper sexuality (i.e., Victoria’s Secret). This takes place all while mocking Biblical womanhood and true femininity. It can be so hard to know where you fit in as a woman of God!

Here are my steps to increasing femininity:

1. Celebrate your femininity

Thank God for the gift of your femininity.

Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.”

God knew from the beginning what color of hair you would have, what color your eyes would be, and that you were going to be a woman. God has designed and set out a perfect role for you to reflect the Lord of all creation’s love as a daughter of the King. How awesome is that?

2. Pray about your femininity

If femininity is something that you struggle with, ask God for help.

1 Chronicles 16:11 says, “Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.”

God’s plan for you and your family is awesome. He wants you to revel in your femininity. He designed you to His perfect specification, and that includes the fact that you are female!

3. Enhance your femininity

Femininity looks different for different people; it is all about what helps you to feel feminine.

For some ladies that could be as simple as wearing a skirt, a pretty scarf or a broach. For other ladies, femininity is an attitude ... or acts of service. I feel the most feminine when I am making food for a house full of people.

I have to say, femininity is something that I have struggled with in my personal life for a long time.

As a weightlifter, I hear a lot of questions about femininity. People ask me everything from how I manage to feel like a girl when I participate in such a masculine sport, to asking if my husband is able to see me as feminine.

It isn’t easy; there is a constant battle of maintaining a healthy balance.

Elisabeth Elliot has a quote that I adore. She said:

“The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that I am a Christian makes me a different kind of woman.” - Elisabeth Elliot

I think that sums up biblical womanhood and femininity for Christian women. We aren’t called to blend in to this world; we are called to stand out as daughters of the King!

What can you do to use your femininity to show the glory of God?

Morgan Farr is an Army wife currently stationed at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina. She and her wonderful husband Brian are expecting their first child in just two weeks! She is a homemaker that dedicates her free time to ministering to other Army wives through Bible studies, one-on-one mentoring and physical training. Morgan writes about her transition out of feminism and into biblical womanhood on her blog.

Graphic adapted, Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.