Four4Him

I've been reading What's the Difference by John Piper. It's small, but a good one. He talks about complementarity and the concept of biblical manhood and womanhood.

"At the heart of mature femininity is a freeing dispoisiton to affirm, recieve and nurture strength and leadership from worthy men in ways appropriate ot a woman's differing relaitonships."

That's it, ladies! This is what we were made to do: to respond to worthy men. I repeat, worthy men. This includes fathers, brothers, friends, uncles and grandpas as well as potential husband material. *ahem* Not that you should be looking for husband material...


This was his vision for mature, biblical feminity, which I found to be quite inspiring:

1. that all your life--in whatever calling--be devoted to the glory of God.


2. That the promises of Christ be trusted so fully that peace and joy and strength fill your soul to overflowing


3.That the fullness of God overflow in daily acts of love so that people might see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in heaven.


4. That you be women of the Book, who love and study and obey the Bible in every area of its teaching. That meditation on biblical truth be the source of hope nad faith. That you continue ot grow in understanding through all the cahpters of your life, never thinking that study and growth are only for others.


5. That you be women of prayer, so that the Word of God will be opened to you, and so the power of fiath and holiness will decend upon you, that your spiritual influence may increase at home and at church and in the world.


6. That you be women who have a deep grasp of the sovriegn grace of God which undergirds all these spiritual processes, and that you be deep thinkers about the doctrines of grace, and even deeper lovers of these things.


7. That you be totally committed to ministry, whatever your specific calling; that you not fritter your time away on soaps or women's magazines or unimportant hobbies or shopping; that you redeem the time for Christ and His Kingdom.


8.That, if you are single, you exploit your singleness to the full in devotion to God ( the way Jesus and Paul and Mary Slessor and Amy Carmicheal did) and not be paralyzed by the desire to be married.


9. That, if you are married, you creatively and intelligently and sincerely support the leadership of your husband as deeply as obedience to Christ will allow; that you encourage him in his God-appointed role as head; that you influence him spiritually primarily through your fearless tranquility and holiness and prayer.

10. That, if you have children, you accept responsibility with your husband (or alone if necessary) to raise up hcildren in the discipline and instruction of the Lord--children who hope in the triumph of God--sharing with your husband the teaching and discipline they need, and giving them the special attatchment they crave from you as wel as that special nurturing touch and care that you alone are fitted to give.

11. That you not assume that secular employment or greater challenge or a better use of your life that the countless opporttunities of service and witness in the home, the neighborhood, the community, the church and the world, that you not only pose the question: career or full time homemaker?, but also just ask just as seriously: full time career or freedom for ministry?That you ask which would be greater for the Kingdom: to work for someone who tells you what to do to make his or her business prosper, or to be God's free agent dreaming your own dream about how your time and your home and your creativity to make God's business prosper? And in all this that you make your choices not based on secular trends or upward lifestyle expectations, but on the basis of what will strengthen the faith of the family and advance the cause of Christ.

12. That you step back and plan the various forms of your lifes' ministry in chapters. Chapters are divided by various things: age, strength, singleness, marriage employment, children at home, children in college, grandchildren, retirement, ect. No chapter has all the joys. Finite life is a series of trade-offs. Finding God's will and living for the glory of Christ is what makes every chapter a success not whether reads like somebody else's chapter or whether it has in it what only another chapter will bring.

13. That you develop and wartime mentality and lifestyle; that you never forget that life is short, that billions of people hang in the balance of heaven and hell every day, that the love of money is spiritual suicide, that the goals of upward mobility is a poor and dangerous substitute for the goals of living for Christ with all your might and maximizing your joy in ministry to peoples' needs.

Poweful stuff, that.

~Kirsten