My husband, Dave, gave me this article to read several months ago and it really made me stop, think, and evaluate my attitude and my heart. I am going to post the article below hoping that others may read it as well and check themselves.
This article is fifteen exhortations encouraging women to be strong, God-centered, Bible-saturated and happy in Christ.
This article also became the inspiration for the title of my blog. I want my life to reflect the love of God and that His love will overflow into daily loving others- truly loving them- the way in which God loves me unconditionally.
A Challenge to Women
By: John Piper
1. That all of 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 you soul to overflowing.
3. That this fullness of God overflow in daily acts of love so that people might see your good deeds and give glory to you 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 and faith. And that you continue to grow inunderstand through all the chapter so your life, never thinking that study and growth are for others.
5. That you be women of prayer, so that the Word of God would open to you; and the power of fatih and holiness would descend upon you; and your spiritual influence would increase at home and at church and in the world.
6. That you be women who have a deep grasp of the soverign grace of God indergirding all these spiriual processes, that you be deep thinkers about the doctrines of grace, and even deeper lovers and believers of these things.
7. That you be totally committed to ministry, whatever your specific role, that you not fritter your time away on soaps or ladies magizines or aimless hobbies, any more that men should fritter theirs away on excessive sports or aimless diddling in the garage. 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 Christ and not be paralyzed but 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 responsiblility with your husband to raise up children who hope in the triumph of God, sharing with him the teaching and discip;ine of the children, and giving to the children that special nurturing touch and care that you are uniquely fitted to give.
11. That you not assume that secular employment is a greater challenge or a better use of your life than the countless opportunities of service and witness in the home, the neighborhood, the community, the church, and the world. That you not only pose the question: Career vs. Full time mom? But that you ask as seriously: Full time career vs. freedom for ministry? That you ask: Which would be greater for the Kingdom- to be in the employ of someone telling you what to do to make his buisness prosper, or to be God's free agent dreaming your dreaming about how your time and your home and your creativity could make God's buisness prosper. And that in all this you make your choices not on the basis of secular trends or yuppie lifestyles expectations, but on the basis of what will strengthen the family and advance the cause of Christ.
12. That you step back and (with your husband) plan the various formos of your life's ministry in chapters. Chapters are divided by various things- age, strength, singleness, marriage, employment choices, children at home, children in college, grandchildren, retirement, etc. No chapter has all the joys. Finite life is a series of tradeoffs. Findings God's will, and living for the glory of Christ to the full in every chapter is what makes it a success, not whether it reads like somebody's chapter ro whether it has in it what chapter five will have.
13. That you develop a wartime mentality and lifestyle; that you never forget that life is short, that billions of people hang in the balance of heaven or hell every day, that the love of money is spiritual suicide, that the goals of upward mobility (nicer clothes, cars, houses, vacations, food, hobbies) are a poor and dangerous substitute for the goals of living for Christ with all your might, and maximizing your joy in ministry to people's needs.
14. That in all your relationships with men you seek the guidence of the Holy Spirit in applying the Biblical vision of manhood and womenhood; that you develop a style and demanor that does justice to the unique role God has given to man to feel responsible for gracious leadership in relation to women- a leadership which involves elements of protection and care and initiative. That you think creatively and with cultural sensitivity(just as he must do) in shaping the style and setting the tone of you interaction with men.
15. That you see Biblical guidelines for hwat is appropriate and inappropriate for men and woen in relation to each other not as arbitrary constraints on freedom but as wise and gracious prescriptions for how to discover the true freedom of God's ideal of complementarity. That you not measure your potential by the few roles withheld but by the countless roles offered. That you turn off the TV and Radio and think about... the awesome significance of motherhood, complementing a man's life as his wife, and areas of ministry.
