fight like a girl

Women's History Month is drawing to a close. Each year I think about posting about it, but March always seems to be such a busy time that I never get one written. If you've followed my writing, you know that I care a great deal about the messages the church sends to our daughters, so I didn't want this month to pass without taking the opportunity to help my readers think along those lines. Since I haven't had time to write, I thought I'd point you toward a teaching I gave recently in which we spent some time looking at women's history as recorded in the book of Exodus.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to address a group of college women on the topic of how they should view their importance to the church. My main point was this: 

Women, you are not an afterthought. What you contribute to the mission of the church is not of secondary importance.

I talked about the female empowerment message of the "Like a Girl" ad that ran during the Super Bowl, noting that female empowerment messages transcend Super Bowl ad campaigns. The Bible, in fact, paints a compelling picture of what it means to fight like a girl.

This is a message given by a female to a female audience, so it covers some ground you might never hear preached from a pulpit. But that's exactly why women teaching women is such a needed layer of discipleship. If you're a guy, don't let that scare you from listening along. If the church is to embrace a strong vision of womanhood, both men and women will need to value it.

You can watch or listen to the 35-minute message here:

{ Fight Like a Girl }

the next beth moore

If you spend any time around women’s retreats or conferences, you will know that the most frequent compliment women pay to a young speaker is “She’s the next Beth Moore.”  What they mean is that they believe the speaker is gifted, and that is a kind thing to express. But I confess that I hope there will not be another Beth Moore. I hope there will never be another like her again.

I spent the past year teaching through Exodus. It was with no small amount of intimidation that I wrote and taught the portion covering the construction of the tabernacle. Any woman who knows anything about women’s Bible study knows the definitive work on the tabernacle was done by Beth Moore. It was her first study, and it was also the first study I ever participated in. Having just traded my career for new motherhood, I signed up for a summer Bible study at my church, desperate to get out of the house.

I had never heard a woman teach like that. Not ever.

Like thousands of other women, I felt awakening in me a compulsion to know this God who reveals Himself to those who earnestly seek Him in the pages of Scripture. I was hooked. Eventually I began writing and teaching my own studies, always mindful of the debt I and so many others owe her.

a sense of urgency

So when I began writing the tabernacle portion of my own study, I got down my old copy of “A Woman’s Heart, God’s Dwelling Place” for the first time in years. As much as anything else, I wanted to avoid unintentionally plagiarizing, but I also wanted to be reminded of the reverent approach Beth had brought to the teaching. Re-reading her words, as well as the clumsy answers scrawled in the blanks by a sleep-deprived new mom, brought back the memory of that newborn urgency I had felt seventeen years ago – that sense of my deep need to know the Bible better, that sense that I was able, and that someone (a woman!) was finally showing me how.

That urgency never left me. The longer I teach, the more convinced I become that Bible literacy must be reclaimed among the body of believers, specifically among women. We don’t know our Bibles like we should - if there is one thing that keeps me up at night, that’s it. Most days I know I’m not alone in my conviction, but I imagine that two decades ago there were many days Beth Moore felt like she was. I imagine there were many days she felt like she was shouting into the wind.

many builders

And that’s why I pray there will never be another Beth Moore. I pray that the field of equipped women teachers will never again be as vacant as it was when she burst onto it with her Texas-sized hair and her preacher-sized passion. I pray that every community and church and living room would be so populated with women championing Bible literacy that our eyes would cease wandering the horizon for the next big thing. Like Moses handing over the instructions for the tabernacle to the able hands of the builders, I pray that Beth’s faithful instruction would result in many able literacy-builders, eagerly constructing a meeting-place between God and women in the pages of His Word.

I pray that her work would bear so much fruit that she would teach herself into obsolescence. I pray no less for myself.

Do you teach the Bible? Work tirelessly to eliminate the possibility of another Beth Moore. Sisters, don’t look to replace her voice: look to replicate her vision. Let us commit that no one voice will ever again be as loud because the need will never again be as great. Let the cry for Bible literacy be raised not through the amplification of a single voice, but through the harmonization of many voices - each with her own style of teaching, her own contribution to make. I am not the Next Beth Moore. I hope you aren’t either. May Christian women know such bounty of sound female instruction that the Next Beth Moore need never arise.

showing honor on mother's day (even when it's hard)

Mother’s Day is once again upon us, sending children of all ages scurrying to the greeting card aisle to find just the right sentiment to send to mom. Mother’s Day touches all of us - though not all of us are mothers, all of us has a mother. It is true that the calendar date of Mother’s Day is not even one hundred years old, but for the people of God who delight in the commands of God, honoring our parents is an ancient and beautiful command given to us for His glory and our good.

The fifth of the Ten Commandments speaks of showing honor to our parents. It is a command often repeated by parents to young children, but I wonder how often we remind ourselves of its relevance to each of us as adult children. Some would say that this command is actually directed primarily at adult children because it is found in a list of other commands so clearly addressed to adults: “Adult children, honor your aging parents whose days have been long upon the land, that your days might be long as well.”

Honoring our parents would be a simple matter if all parents were worthy of honor - a command to do so might be almost unnecessary. But for some of us, that aisle of Mother’s Day cards awash with loving sentiment can feel like an annual gauntlet we must run. Yes, all of us has a mother, but not all of us has one who is easy to honor.

So how can we think beyond the card aisle to fulfill the fifth command so far as we are able?

Maybe your mother didn’t do everything right. If you’re a parent yourself, you have probably learned already to extend the gracious proposition that she did the best she could. Show honor to your mother by telling her two of your favorite memories of her from your childhood. If you have children of your own, repeat those stories to them as well. And think hard about which other stories they need to hear. Giving your children the gift of relationship with a grandmother un-weighted by the baggage of your own childhood can be a way to show honor. Sometimes we honor our mothers by demonstrating forgiveness in what we leave unsaid.

Maybe the mother who raised you was a mother in name only. Maybe she caused or allowed harm to you. Look to show honor where you can. Who mothered you? A teacher? An aunt? A grandmother? A stepmother? Express your gratitude to the woman or women in your life who looked beyond the boundaries of biology to demonstrate motherly love in tangible ways. Make a donation to a cause that helps women to mother and children to be parented.

Maybe your mother is no longer living. Show honor to her memory by making a recipe she made, by reviving a family tradition she started, or by making a donation to a charity in her name. Maybe you know someone whose mother has recently passed away. Ask them what they miss most about her. Send a note to acknowledge their sorrow. Maybe you know someone aching to be a mother. Maybe you know a mother whose child will never wish her Happy Mother’s Day. Reach out to them with empathy and comfort.

Maybe your mother was the kind for whom the entire greeting card aisle was written. By all means, take your time finding the perfect card and writing the perfect sentiment. But also feel the weight of your privilege. To be raised by a mother who consistently places the needs of others above her own is no common thing. Show honor by being that kind of parent to your own children. But don’t stop there. Turn your eyes to those you know who are physically, emotionally or spiritually motherless and be a mother (or father) to them according to their need.

We, all of us, are sons and daughters. This Mother’s Day may we think beyond the card aisle to outdo one another in showing honor, each of us according to the grace we have been given.