My mother- a Godly woman
Firstly, A very happy birthday to my dearest mother who has been a father and mother to me throughout my life. She has made so many sacrifices to ensure that we have the lifestyle we have. She saved money so that we can learn the piano, participate in after school activities. She is a humble woman. A compassionate woman and a God-fearing woman. My mother taught me to read the bible and memorize bible verses from a young age. She frequently sings hymns during her daily tasks.I was deeply touched to see the way she lived after my father passed away. She never gave up hope and she is a wonderful mother, provider and safe harbour.
Qualities of a Godly woman - part 1 Summary: Waiting for the unseen. Waiting for our future partner without assuming that each man we meet is our future spouse. We can risk being passive-aggressive by manipulating the other and manipulating God's message to fit our desires. We can wait patiently for our future partner to pursue us, just as Christ first died for us on the Cross. But we don't have faith in Jesus just because of things of this earth like having a husband.
The bible talks about godly women being life-givers. For example, Ruth gave up her life in her country to return to the homeland of her mother-in-law. As a widow, she worked and provided for her mother-in-law.
My thoughts: After reading the article, I have felt a bit guilty. I think in my past relationships or interactions with people, I have been very passive aggressive. There is much room to improve and indeed the points mentioned here a) patience b) being a giving person are essential characteristics of being a Godly woman. Being a selfish creature, I know I can't do this on my own, but it would be through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ!
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http://cdtarter.blogspot.com.au/2007/03/qualities-of-godly-woman-part-1.html
Original post:
I think in Christian circles we talk a lot about the necessity for male leadership. It's not uncommon to hear girls on a college campus or in a youth group bemoan the lack of initiative from men - and honestly, I think sometimes men get a bad wrap. Don't get me wrong, I think first and foremost we should be encouraging our men to step up, love the Gospel, and lead fervently, and it must start with them. But also, in our movement to raise up male leaders, we must also speak to women.
Godly men will be looking for godly wives, so how are we supposed to live?
I have talked before about the necessity for women to love theology-and I think that ties in here. We should saturate our minds with Scripture. Study it. Love it. Meditate on it. Memorize it. Live by it. As your life is centered around the Word of God, the characteristics of a godly woman will be begin to manifest themselves in your life. Male leadership does not mean that we default to their study of the Word as our sole source of spiritual nourishment. They will give an account for how they lead us, but if we love our Savior we should and will love His Word.
How will the children know if we don't teach them? And how will we teach the children if we don't know it, love it, and delight in it ourselves? We are all (men and women) called to know and love our Savior, but our roles as women are to teach women and children (Titus 2:3-5).
As I said earlier in the week, we must not be on a "quest" for a husband. Like the Bride waits unknowingly for her Bridegroom, Jesus Christ-so we too wait unknowingly for our future spouse. We must never assume a friendship is more than a friendship when it begins, lest we consciously or unconsciously take over a situation because of our false intuition. We won't be able to wait unless we have a deep contentment in Jesus Christ. Waiting causes us to live out the theology that we believe. God's sovereignty over every detail of our lives causes us to rest in the fact that He holds even the smallest details in His hands-even a man's affections for us.
Being the pursued means exactly what it implies-waiting. Anything more than that turns into a rebellious, unbelieving spirit like Eve. Manipulation is our forte, isn't it? And often times we do everything in our power to give the impression that we are patiently waiting, yet we coax the man along passive aggressively. It shows itself in our coordinating of situations so they perfectly leave us alone together so we can surprisingly have to "talk". When we manipulate we are saying that God cannot be trusted in this situation-therefore we have to do something, anything, to make the situation work according to our liking. We usurp the very thing we desire, male leadership, when we attempt to pursue a man.
This is not easy, and it most certainly is not "normal" based on the world's standards. Which is exactly why we must strive for it. The world preaches feminism and independence from any form of order (moral or social). But the Bible preaches a beautiful picture of redemption, in a Christ who purchases a Bride for Himself with His own blood. There is joy in waiting. There is joy in being pursued the way Christ pursued His Bride because it is the way God designed it. Operating outside of His prescribed parameters brings a joyless existence - and ultimately death.
In all of these things we must remember that our pursuit of God is not a means to finding a godly husband. If that is our motivation, then we need to do some serious thinking. Our pursuit of God must be because we want to get God-and if He so pleases to give us the gift of marriage then we will gladly take it, but in all of life our delight in Christ must be because of Christ, not because of what we think we might receive. May God bless you and increase your joy as you pursue Him with all of your heart and mind.
http://cdtarter.blogspot.com.au/2007/04/qualities-of-godly-woman-part-2-being.html
In their book, Women’s Ministry in the Local Church, Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt describe a godly woman as a one who is a “life-giver” and not a “life-taker”.
Being a “life-giver” in today’s culture poses many challenges to the woman seeking to live biblically. Western culture has so distorted womanhood, and personhood for that matter, to the point of thinking that the world revolves around one thing—me. If I’m sick of my husband—divorce. If my baby is an imposition—abortion. If I don’t like my hands—plastic surgery. Relativism has created a society that views the self as autonomous and authoritative in all matters, therefore, what I say goes and no one can question me. We live in a world of life-taking, when the Bible commands a world of life-giving.
As women who desire to seek Christ and know the Word, how do we know what it means to be a life-giver? In our quest to unpack godly womanhood, let’s look at a true life-giver depicted for us in the Word of God—her name is Ruth.
Consider Ruth, a Moabite woman who married an Israelite. In Ruth 1 we see the first glimpses of her life-giving in response to her mother-in-law, Naomi. Upon the death of Naomi’s husband and sons (Ruth’s husband) she embarks to return to her people the Israelites. Ruth and Orpah (the other Moabite woman and daughter-in-law) are faced with a decision, follow Naomi with no real hope of remarriage or comfort, or stay in Moab, where remarriage is likely and comfort is a given. Orpah stays in her homeland, while Ruth resolves to go with Naomi. Notice Ruth’s life-giving response to Naomi:
“For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD to do to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you” (Ruth 1:16-17).
What makes a relatively young woman leave her homeland, leave her family, leave her friends, leave the hope of marriage behind? Hope in God. John Piper, in talking about submission, says that a truly godly woman can submit because she hopes in God. Biblical womanhood, and godliness in general, is a life of sacrifice. It requires a daily dying to self and a daily hope in God.
If you follow the rest of the book you will see that not only did Ruth go with Naomi, but she also provided for Naomi. Chapter two tells us that Ruth went and gleaned grain in the fields in order to provide food for Naomi and herself. In a day where young people live only for themselves, where changing diapers and bearing children is seen as subhuman, and where our elderly people are dying lonely deaths in nursing homes, Ruth is a beacon of light to a depraved culture of self-worship. Putting our hope in fleeting things, such as fame, prestige, careers, and power will only amount to death. But putting our hope in God, the giver of life, will sustain us and enable us to give our own lives for the sake of others—even our ailing parents, elderly grandparents and church members, and the little children. In order to be godly women we must renounce any semblance of life-taking in our lives, and seek to be life-givers.
As we seek to live in the Spirit of Ruth, let’s follow first the footsteps of our Christ, who was the supreme of all life-givers.
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11).
