The woman I desire to be is a combination of Mary and Esther and maybe a little sprinkle of Lisa Chan. Aside from the woman who raised me, I think that these women are the coolest, wisest, and godliest women ever. They are the type of people I would love to help carry me through life, sit down and have coffee with, and be poured into by. Mary is the quintessential worshiper of Jesus. She is patient. She remembers to sit a Jesus' feet and just trust Him. She doesn't worry about all of the things that need to be done. She is focused on eternal things, not things of this world. She lets God's love permeate through the stubborn cracks of her heart. Esther is patient. She sought divine guidance in times of difficulty. She is reserved. Modest. Quiet. Humble. Self-controlled. Hidden. These adjectives contradict the image of the normal heroine, especially in today's age where feminism is screaming in your face you need to be overly assertive to be heard. Yet, Esther was all these things and saved the Jewish people. Lisa Chan has died to her self. She puts everyone first, yet she also knows when she needs to be alone with Jesus. She sacrifices for her family. She submits to her husband. She takes a genuine interest in others. She also loves Jesus with all of her heart.
And then there is me.
I am not some perfect little Christian girl that has her life together. I am far, far away from the lie of anyone having it all together. My relationship with God has hung by a thread at some points in my life. I have questions and concerns, demons that run around in my mind. I fight back insecurities, anger, jealousy, and fear every single day. I struggle with self-control and every single lie the devil can drill into my tiny, confused, weak human brain. I struggle trusting in God's plan for me and I try to use my meek and pathetic fleshy human hands to snatch control right out of the Creator's grasp. When God takes control away from me and starts whispering trust into my ear, my body goes numb and I know I am in for another battle against my flesh. It is in these moments that I look to my bible and find out how a Godly woman should act.
A godly woman hopes in God.
For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves.(1 Peter 3:5)
You should never shy away from reading God's word. Precious in the sight of the Lord is a woman who puts her complete trust in Jesus. We need to live in His presence. When we do this we become more aware of God than the people and circumstances around us. We don't put our hope in circumstances because they will always fail us. God is for you despite your circumstances, despite your bank account, despite what your closest holds. God accepts you whether your dream school did or didn’t. God doesn't care what the world tells you, listen to Him because He is the only One who truly knows your whole soul. Trust God because He is your Creator. God does not judge by what you have or don’t. God cares about who you are. He doesn't care about the material you own. He just wants you to know Him because He is the only One who will ever fill your desire ridden heart. Trust that He knows how to satisfy your heart because He is the One who crafted it. We put our hope in God because he never fails. This will increase our ability to love and encourage others. His peace will be very visible in our actions. It will buffer us from the world and we will not be easily shaken. We should never give up on the pursuit of God through His Word and we must find shelter in His name.
A godly woman rests in God
let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.(1 Peter 3:4)
For some reason, it is so easy for me to measure my worth by human interactions. I'll literally talk to a complete stranger for 2 minutes and if I catch even the slightest bit of annoyance my self-worth seems to go down. I will never see them again yet I let them handle one of the most precious and sensitives gifts God has equipped us with, our confidence. I try to gain this from friends, family, and complete strangers, and it ends up being an emotional rollercoaster. As humans we can not get our worth from other humans, we are inconsistent by nature. We need to gain confidence from the person who gave it to us in the first place. We were designed to be sinners, saved by grace, so why do we have this made up scale where the value of inconsistent human opinions outweighs the everlasting truth that God speaks. Their opinions fail me every time as they should. I nor you were created to find assurance in worldly possessions, but in the everlasting truth that God speaks. God holds an infinite capacity for love, one that is not swayed by sin but is anchored in truth. Though we cannot see this we are surrounded by it. We are surrounded by a love that is consuming us yet we can't even begin to understand it. We will not be able to achieve this love by ever being good enough because this love that God possesses is not circumstantial. This ceaseless love is incomprehensible. He doesn't love you more or less than any other creation that He has made. We have achieved an unachievable love by being sinners saved by grace. Rest in that.
A godly woman finds her beauty from within
Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last, but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised.-Proverbs 31:30
Be the simple girl because that shows that you are far from simple in your heart. This shows that you are more worried about others than yourself. Be the girl who wears running shorts and t shirts and throws her hair up in a bun because this shows that you check your heart more than your hair. You go beyond surface level conversations and look people in the eye when they speak. You see people behind the counter as real people, not servants, you tip well, and stand up to shake hands, you build others up, run to those who are hurting, and are confident in who you are because you are confident in who God is. Remember, the material of your soul will always overwhelm the material of your world. Be the girl with scraped knees, because that means you have been places and going places lasts a lifetime. That means you have chosen the real world over the safety of your couch and cell phone. It means you have gone outside a few times and have fallen down a few more times, but have gotten back up. It means that you my dear, are more concerned with your soul than your body. Your job in life is not to be pretty. Your job in life is to love. To love God. To love people. To love yourself. This darling makes you beautiful. So when you have scraped knees it means you have pursued God. It means you have gotten down and dirty and really experienced all that He has to offer.
A godly woman loves
She extends a helping hand to the poor and opens her arms to the needy. Proverbs 31:20
We were not meant to live our lives separately from one another. Fully loving and fully living is not only synonymous but they are exactly the way Jesus invited us to live. One of the keys to the gospel is doing life with one another. This is regardless of how different they may seem then you, how far away their sins seem from yours, how annoying or unreceptive they seem. We are called to love. We are called to walk through the difficult and messy times together because guess what? God made both of us, He made us in His image, and we are called to love and encourage each other. He desires us to imitate Him rather than the world. He longs for us to follow His pattern. My problem is, is that I get caught up in monotonous tasks and forget the love. I maybe a door greeter every time I go to church, but if I am doing it out of obligation rather than love, I might as well not do it at all. He doesn't just call us to love in the areas of our life that are easy. We are called to love in everything because love conquers all. Christ's love broke through for us everywhere. There is never tension, nor anger or awkwardness. He never loved out of obligation. It's not enough just to love God, we will know the extent of our love for God by how well we love people.