Toy Stories: Barbie — Nurturing vs. Domineering - Thursday
Today’s Verse
Proverbs 31:28-29
Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” (ESV)
Way back in the 1980s when I was in Junior High School, we had to take an aptitude test designed to identify careers that matched our skills and strengths. I vividly remember sitting in a room listening to my teacher explain which things boys are usually good at and which things girls are usually good at. Then, she passed out our results, and while I tried to reconcile my results in my mind with what she had just explained, she asked us to raise our hands if we had scored above a certain range in each category. I quickly realized that I was the only girl raising my hand with all the guys time after time, then my hand stayed down as all the other girls raised theirs. Even more confusing to me at the time was the fact that I didn’t really want to be good at some of the things that girls were supposed to have a natural aptitude for.
As I continued on in my education and pursued things that were mostly “for guys,” I had some success, and even though at times it was challenging to be mostly among guys, I never felt less feminine than other girls or as though I were on the wrong path. But fairly early on in college, I had a realization that shook me. There was nothing inherently wrong with my educational or career goals, but some of them (being rather lofty and demanding) were incompatible with the God-given desire inside of me to be a wife and nurturing mom.
What I realized is I couldn’t do it all, I couldn’t have it all, and I couldn’t be it all to everyone—certainly not all at the same time. Specifically in the context of being a wife and mom, someone or something was going to get less of me than they deserved. When we read about the Proverbs 31 woman, what is it that causes her to surpass all other women? It is not because she has done such a great job in school or at work. This distinction comes from the words of her husband and children—the people she has poured out her life for.
APPLICATION
Women, are there things in your life you need to reprioritize to answer God’s call on your life to nurture those who have been entrusted to you? Men, are there things you need to do differently to allow the women in your life the margin to reprioritize so that they can nurture?
PRAYER
Lord, thank You for those You have placed in my life for me to serve and care for. Help me to make Your priorities my priorities.