I met with these “Dearly Beloved Daughters” last Friday for a beautiful meal and time of sharing and caring. It was wonderful! We women need one another so much and yet we make so little time for one another in our culture...
Did you know “one anothering” is encouraged 100 times in the New Testament☺ That’s a lot! And that means taking time for sisterhood is important!
As women, we were created for face to face, eye to eye sharing, laughter, crying, hugging and caring one another’s burdens. We were created to share the feminine essence of our identity.
During our evening together, we spoke of how the feminist movement has tried to fill the longings of our feminine heart, but has left us still wanting…
We spoke of how the cry of our heart is really a cry for love, for acceptance, for healing, for knowing our value and our worth. It is a cry for significance that has no fear, no want, no lack of safety and security.
More than ever, women are suffering from an identity crisis. Simply put, the enemy wants us to believe we women will NEVER BE ACCEPTABLE, we will NEVER BE ENOUGH.
Until we comprehend our God-given value, we will continue to try to fill our longings for significance and value, with the lies the world offers. We will try to look prettier, be fitter, reshape our bodies, be smarter, work harder, have more, be more perfect…and if that is our attempt to prove our significance and value, the end result will always be, we are STILL NOT ENOUGH, WE ARE STILL LEFT WANTING.
If the enemy can rob us of our identity, he can convince us to relinquish EVERYTHING we have been given by our Father in Heaven. Our enemy’s whole goal is to rob us of our identity so he can deny us our rightful inheritance as Yahweh’s Dearly Beloved Daughters. And if we don’t know “Who we are,” we don’t even know what is rightfully ours!
Nothing fills the feminine longing of our heart more than our Heavenly Father’s assurance that WE ARE ENOUGH. After all, He created us! He knew us before we were even formed (Psalm 139:15)! He intricately wove us, with personalities, gifts and abilities (Psalm 139: 13-14)! He has a plan written for each one of us! He knows our beginning and our end! (Psalm 139:16, Isaiah 46:3-4) And above all, he created us female for a glorious purpose ((Gen. 1:27–28; 2:18, Luke 9:60, John 15:16, Eph. 2:10).
I have come to realize, His Dearly Beloved Daughters, that being feminine doesn’t only mean we have the right to a public voice. It’s not just about our ability to move out of our homes into the workplace and to become more independent with our own income. It doesn’t only mean we are equally as competent as men to embrace any vocation we desire, with equal pay. And it absolutely doesn’t mean we need to flaunt our sexuality or compete physically with one another or the media,or the porn industry that has infiltrated our homes, to try to prove our worth.
No! It means we were created with purpose, on purpose, to express the feminine attributes of Yahweh’s heart and character. It means He has imbued us as women, with His capacity to birth, to nurture, to comfort, and to support. His capacity to express emotions and to impart intuitive wisdom. We have the innate capacity to express, like our Father, a longing for deep, intimate relationships and to raise our children in protective, lifegiving homes that will provide them the greatest propensity for their development. It means we are natural contenders for the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being of humanity.
From the cradle, we have all been shaped by the world’s perception, definition, and expectations that denote our value. But contrary to the world’s perspective, our significance, our value, our worth has NOTHING to do with our feminine physical aspects, or with what we have, or with what we can do or accomplish (which are all value aspects the world gives high credence to).
It doesn’t matter what we look like, what our gifts and abilities are, or what we can achieve… Our great value has to do with WHO we are! WHO we belong to! And WHO our Father is!
When we begin to comprehend our God-given feminine value in light of our rightful inheritance, our beliefs will change. Our behaviors will change. Our responses and reactions will change. Our lives will change. And so will the lives of those we touch.
Let’s look at how the Amplified Bible encourages us to focus on our ‘real’ feminine prowess that yields great power to change our inner and outer world:
3 Your adornment must not be merely external—with interweaving and elaborate knotting of the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or [being superficially preoccupied with] dressing in expensive clothes; 4 but let it be [the inner beauty of] the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality and unfading charm of a gentle and peaceful spirit, [one that is calm and self-controlled, not overanxious, but serene and spiritually mature] which is very precious in the sight of God (1 Peter 3:3-4)
Dearly Beloved Daughters, let’s not put our hope in things that are perishable, things that wither and fade; but let us embrace things of the heart that will produce eternal fruit. To be the heart and wisdom of our marriages, children and culture is Yahweh’s incredible plan for our feminine gender!.
Dearly Beloved Daughters, we were created by Yahweh for an intricate, feminine purpose. When we know our identity, and we join with other women who know their identity, we are unstoppable in bringing about change! Let’s determine to encourage one another in so doing!