For those of you who missed the opening day of Coffee Break for this season here is a copy of the devotions that morning:
We
are planning to do a topical study, not a book of the bible this year and the
topic is Woman of God. That’s a bit of an intimidating topic as we tend to think that a woman of god is so perfect in all
the Godly qualities of a , a good mother, daughter, friend, wife, worker, a good
spiritual person. It seems like a topic
that may make us feel inadequate as we don’t look, feel or act so good all the
time. A lot of the time we look in the
mirror and we see all of our flaws, and think that’s who we are and so we worry
about covering up all the bad parts of us, by colouring the hair that’s going
gray, finding just the right clothes to hide the stomach that's gotten a little
round, buying that special expensive cream to get rid of the wrinkles that show
on our face. I wonder if sometimes we
forget who we really are as we worry ourselves into being who we really
aren’t. Lets look at what Jesus says to
us n Matthew 6: 25 :
25 e“Therefore I tell you, fdo not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?26 gLook at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. hAre you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his ispan of life?7 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,29 yet I tell you, jeven Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, kO you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 Forlthe Gentiles seek after all these things, and myour heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But nseek first othe kingdom of God and his righteousness, pand all these things will be added to you.
I brought this big bouquet of flowers full of purple phlox, yellow brown eyed susies, white daisies, Queen anne's lace and others flowers from home, some are from my garden and others i just found in the
field . I am not that great a gardener,
if your a perennial you better just learn to grow on your own every year
because I tend to not get to the weeding and the watering. And yet, look at this beautiful bouquet of
flowers, God provided for these flowers all they needed to become all they were
suppose to be ,
Being a
woman though is a tough thing, much different than being a flower.
I don’t always look beautiful like a flower and
actually lately, I’ve been having hotflashes , I get really weepy over
commercials on tv, I am emotionally volatile, yes I am a women in pre
menopause. Maybe you are there too, or
you have been there, or maybe you have that still to look forward to. Being a woman is a wonderful, horrible,
beautiful, terrible thing. First we have
to bleed once a month, what a horrible thing, but only so we get the wonderful
blessing of having children, then along with our periods come hormonal
emotional tidal waves. Perhaps as we get
a little older and more mature the emotions settle a bit just like our breasts which seem to want to hide in our
under arms, don’t mean to scare the younger ladies , just something for you to
look forward to , but sad to say the emotional hormonal tidal wave just gets
worse as we get older and near menopause, any thing can set it off, a beautiful
day, a cute puppy, your kids leaving for school, a chocolate chip cookie , now when I was younger I would hate It when
the guys would say oh its only her hormones when I was emotional, but now I use
it as a great excuse for all those embarrassing moments of tears streaming down
my face. Being a woman is not an easy
thing ..and yet
God created
us in his own image , (gen 1:27 ) Women
were the last thing created the, crowning glory of his creation , because it
was not good for man to be alone (gen 2:18) he needed a helper , The only time that God says that his creation
is not good is when there is something
missing , woman. There were qualities
that God gave us that are part of his image that was needed in his new
creation. I
I wonder
what those qualities are. What qualities
do you think they could be: perhaps
beauty, caring, empathy, trust, love, perhaps some are the same as men but
in different amounts ? I don’t know, we are all so different and unique and we
were created to be in community together
so that our gifts would compliment each other and help build community whether
at church, work or in our families.
In our
society however, there is much tension between men and women .When I went to
high school it was the seventies, I don’t know if you remember the seventies,
but it was after the decade of free love and emancipation and women’s rights of the
sixties. The songs on the radio were I am Woman, by Helen reddy, RESPECT by
Aretha Franklin So in the seventies the
slogan we women heard was "you can do anything a man can do,, but better". And the push was on to make women equal to
men as scientists, doctors and engineers etc.
And along
came the super woman, super mom, the Martha Stewarts of the world who could do
everything and make it look nice and easy doing it. We worked 9 – 5, cleaned
our houses, took care of the kids, drove them to soccor and ballet and music
lessons , spent time with our husbands and even had time to decorate our homes
with homemade accessories for all those special occasions, and sew those cute
little clothes for our kids, we volunteered at school and church and in our
community , we could do anything and everything, even leap tall buildings in a single bound, better even than super man because we were Super Woman !
Yes we were
becoming equal but we may have lost our way as we forgot who we were as women..
Then came
the new millenia and the 2000's with more
research on the brain about how men and women are different and along came books
such as Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, and the world realized we
are different in the way we think and process information and emotions, the way
we relate to each other as women and the way we relate differently with
men. Women are like spaghetti noodles
with everything always there to be part of the conversation , where as men have
things in separate boxes to be used when they need it.
So we were
created different than men, We didn’t have to be just like a man , we could be
who we were created to be as women. We are beautiful and terrible, and wonderful
and horrible. And what exactly did God intend when he created us and what is it
we are to be so that we may be fully what he created us to be:
Lets look
back at the flowers , did you know that each flower's name has a meaning =
-
This
little one here , looks like a tiny daisy, is an Aster, it means contentment
-
This
is a Daisy and its name means innocence
-
The
Hydrangea means perseverance
-
Phlox
= harmony
-
And
this Queen Anne’s lace means delicate
-
Even
the colours of the flowers have meaning – a white flower stands for purity
-
A
yellow flower is friendship, trust, compassion
-
Pink
–sensitivity, playfulness
-
Purple
– grace, charm, elegance
-
Each of us
has a name too, my name Freda means peace – I love that, it does seem to fit my
character to. Do you know the meaning of your name?Pperhaps it has some special
meaning for you too. Regardless God knows you by that name, he knew you before
you were born in your mothers womb and he loves you for who you are. Each one of
us is as unique as each of these flowers, with our own unique name and qualities.
He wants us to be the best Joan, and Jane and Margaret we were meant to be .
I am looking forward to this study Woman of God , to see how I can be more
the woman God created me to be , so that I do not have to worry about what I
look like, but like the flower I can grow to be what I was meant to be. I don’t want to be the woman who looks in the
mirror and sees all her flaws. I want to be the woman who looks in the mirror
and thanks God for the beautiful woman he created, don’t you?
