“What if your daughter wanted to be an interior designer? Go to school and become a professional? I’m only asking what if. Would you push her to stay at home or to follow her dreams?”
I was asked this question during a conversation about a woman’s calling to be a “keeper at home.”
I could write a book about all the ways a woman is free to “be all she can be” and still remain in the realm of helpmeet and keeper at home, about the glories of being freed from the slavery of someone else’s clock and schedule and agenda.
But before all of that, we must be grounded in the basic teaching of Scripture about the call of a Christian, which directly opposes the teaching of feminism.
Notice in the comment above…”follow her dreams?”
I can not find anything in Scripture that encourages us to “follow our dreams.” In fact, quite the contrary. My Bible says to “deny yourself and follow Me.” Oprah Winfrey says to “follow your dreams.”
Fundamental to all that we teach our children should be a denying of self and a “seeking first the kingdom of God.” Dying to live, seeking what is eternal, others before ourselves–that is the theme that weaves true Christianity. Have you read the story of Christians who lived in the catacombs? Such sacrificial living is so foreign to us we can’t even imagine it. The giving up, not only of “all our dreams”, but even the very security of life and the simple joys of daily sunshine pushed these Christians to live in unthinkable conditions. They understood “losing your life to save it.”
Now the irony is that if we desire obedience above all else, He will give us the desires of our heart. But obedience is paramount; not following my dreams.
(As an aside, since coming home to work full time for my family, my “dream” of becoming a writer has become a reality in ways I never could have planned on my own. I know He cares about our loves and gifts.)
This is why man’s wisdom is so dangerous. It is most often driven by flesh–my dreams, my goals, my ambitions, my desires. Obedience requires faith to do what I cannot understand; to believe what may not make sense.
So, will I “push my daughter to stay home”? No, nor will I push her to follow her dreams. I’ll push my daughter to seek first the Kingdom through which she will find the desires of her heart.
Is “the graceful woman” lost in today’s “anything you can do, I can do better” world?
The Lord has awakened, it seems, a tremendous passion in the hearts of His people for adoption. More and more Christians are seeking to answer the call of caring for the orphans, the most fundamental command of Scripture, through many different avenues, whether adoption, helping a family adopt, or just meeting the immediate needs of someone in front of them.