Fully Female!
In the beginning God created male and female. He did not create two males, rather a male and a female. Together they make one whole, yet each one is different from the other. To want to be like man, fulfilling his function is to be deceived. Droves of women, unthinkingly, have followed the feminist agenda of the last few decades and turned from their female role to compete in the man’s sphere. Inevitably, we have not only seen the devastating breakdown in family life, but the weakening of manhood.
It is time to break through the haze of deception and get back to who God created us to be. If you were born female, you may as well embrace it with all your heart and live your femaleness to the full. To do anything less is to shortchange the destiny of your life!
What does it mean to be fully female? May God give us understanding as we look at an acrostic of this word, FEMALE.
Feminine
Masculinity is aligned with manhood; femininity with womanhood. That’s just how it’s meant to be. It is sad that many children grow up today without fully understanding the true functions of male and female. The roles are not defined in their family life and they see a blurred picture. When they are older, the distortion continues into their marriages and families. And the breakdown of family life continues.
I was blessed to grow up in a home where the sexes were clearly defined. My parents did not have to teach me; it was pictured in their lives. My father was “a man’s man in a man’s world” and yet a loving husband and father. He was a hard-working provider who delighted in his wife being secure in her nest to raise their children. He loved to get out and hunt and do his manly things, but loved the femininity of his wife. She was a dressmaker who made all her own clothes with hats to match. He was so proud of her when she went out, always beautifully dressed and looking like a queen.
As females, I believe we should seek to be as feminine as we possibly can. We should glory in our femininity. We should talk femininely. Is there anything more revolting than a loud-mouthed screaming woman? We should walk femininely and train our daughters to do so. We should dress femininely—that is, within the liberty of how God uniquely made each one of us. God didn’t make us robots, nor did he create us to be in bondage. There are some women who love frills and bows, and others who hate them. Some are sportier. But whatever our uniqueness, let us make sure that we reveal to our family and the world around us the femininity of our femaleness.
Equal in Worth, but Different in Function
As male and female, we are equal in worth before God. God plainly reveals this truth when He says that we are one (Genesis 2:24) It would be impossible to have one half more important than the other! But our equality is not in doing the same thing. That would be superfluous! God created male and female together to reveal His image—and each reveals a different aspect of God. The word “female” in Genesis 1:28 simply means “the opposite of male.”
The man reveals the fatherhood anointing of God. In the divine order of creation God has given him headship. His mandate from God is to cover his wife by caring for her needs, physically and spiritually. He covers her by caressing her with the same kind of love with which Christ loved the church. He provides for her so she can keep their home and does not have to leave her little ones to the mercy of others. He protects her from the deceptions of this world so she can walk in security and peace. It is the privilege of the female to submit to this covering and be blessed.
It is a modern phenomenon that many women are more submitted to their employer at work than they are to their husband at home. They are locked into running to the dictates of their employer rather than the desires of their husband.
1 Corinthians 11:7 tells us that “the man is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man.” We become our husband’s glory, not when we try to be like the man, but when we embrace our femaleness.
Maternal
The ultimate glory and beauty of the female is her maternalness. This is who God created us to be—a nurturer, nourisher and nest-builder. This is the greatest anointing that we walk in as women. It is more than what we do; it is who we are. The most female thing that we can do is to embrace our maternalness and live it to the full. It is not insignificant. Motherhood originates in the very heart of God. One of the names of God, “Almighty” is translated “El Shaddai” in the Hebrew and means “the breasted one.”
Every female has maternal emotions, whether she has children or not. If God has blessed you with children, pour out your motherly affections upon them. You are doing what you were born to do. This is the glory of your femininity. If you have not been blessed with children, ask God who He wants you to pour out your motherly hormones upon. There are so many hurting in our world today—orphans, widows, single mothers, the elderly, and the poor and needy. This is how you fulfill your destiny.
An Anchor
It is innately within the female to love home, unless we have been brainwashed by the humanistic propaganda of our secular society. God created Adam before He created the garden home, but before He created the female He had the home waiting for her. She was created for the home. God gave her the home to be her nesting place, to raise her children, and as an opportunity for her creativity.
In Psalm 128 God paints a picture of a family that is blessed of the Lord. In verse three, it pictures the wife in the very heart of her home. The Complete Jewish Bible translates it: “Your wife will be a like a fruitful vine in the inner parts of your house.” As you raise godly children in your home, you have the power to change the destiny of nations. It is also where you will find peace and rest.
God calls the home a “resting place” in Proverbs 24:15. In Hosea 11:11 (Knox) we read: “And in their own home, says the Lord, I will give them rest.” Not only does He call the home a place of rest, but a place of delight. Genesis 2:8 (Knox) says, “God had planted a garden of delight, in which he now placed the man he had formed.” The first home, which was the prototype of all homes to come, was a place of delight. God intends your home to be a delight. Why not start your morning prayer with, “How can I make my home a more delightful place today? How can I bring more enjoyment into my marriage relationship? How can I bring more pleasure into the lives of my children today?”
As females, we have the privilege to be the anchors of the home. To anchor our marriage in times of stress and turmoil, to anchor our children as they face the temptations and storms of life, and to anchor our home to be a secure rock and fortress in the midst of a perilous world. The home does not function effectively unless the mother is in the heart of the home and home is in her heart.
The virtuous woman in Proverbs 31:27 “watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.” The word “watches” is the same Hebrew word that is used for the watchmen who watch over the city. Just as the men watch over the city gates, God expects the mother to watch over her home.
Life-Giver
Genesis 3:20 says: “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.” The Hebrew meaning of Eve is “life-giver.” This is not a negative, as many women are brainwashed to believe, but the most positive, powerful, and influential thing that we can accomplish in our lives. It is world-changing to bring life into the world. One writer says, “When God sees that in this poor old world a wrong needs righting or a truth needs preaching or a benefit needs inventing, He sends a baby into the world to do it.”
Not only do we have the privilege of birthing a life for this world, but for the eternal world. Every child is an eternal soul that will live forever! In fact, the only thing that we will take into the eternal realm is our redeemed soul and the redeemed souls of our children. Everything else that we spend our life upon will be left behind.
Theodore Curler writes, "The birth of a babe is a mighty event...In the darkest hovel in Brooklyn, in the dingiest attic or cellar, or in any place in which a human being sees the first glimpse of light, the eye of the Omniscient beholds an occurrence of prodigious movement. A life is begun, a life that shall never end. A heart begins to throb that shall beat to the keenest delight or the acutest anguish. More than this - a soul commences a career that shall outlast the earth on which it moves. The soul enters upon an existence that shall be untouched by time, when the sun is extinguished like a taper in the sky, the moon blotted out, and the heavens have been rolled together as a vesture and changed forever."
It is interesting that today many women are so educated beyond their intelligence that they no longer understand the way God created them—with a womb to nurture life and breasts to nourish life. Instead of being life-givers to the world, they become life-stoppers, negating God’s intentions and purpose.
Enricher
The female, with her sensitivity and intuitiveness to needs around her has the privilege to be the enricher of the home. She enriches her marriage, enriches the children God has given her, and enriches the atmosphere of her home.
Is your home filled with love and the joy of the Lord? Make it richer with more love. Perhaps there is no loving atmosphere in your home. You can begin to fill it up with love. It won’t happen unless you do it. You are the enricher, remember. You are the one who makes your home richer with all good things. As you catch the vision to be the Enricher of your home, you will also be an...
Enabler – enabling your children to reach their full destiny.
Encourager – daily encouraging your husband and each one of your children for who they are and for the little things they do for you.
Endearer – endearing your family to one another.
Enhancer – enhancing the atmosphere of love and joy in your home, making it richer day by day.
Enlarger – enlarging your heart to embrace the poor and needy.
Enlightener – giving understanding and enlightenment of the ways of God to your children.
Enlivener – seeking to make your home alive with the presence of God.
Ennobler – making your children honorable and noble in all things.
Enthraller – enthralling your children with new ideas, creativity, and the wonders of God’s creation.
Enthuser – enthusing your children to be ardent for God.
Entertainer – keeping your little children happy.
Enticer – enticing your children into the joy of prayer and reading God’s living Word.
Enveloper – wrapping your children around with protection and love.
Envisioner – giving vision and hope to each member of the family.
Energizer – releasing the spirit of work and creativity in the home.
Engraver – engraving the names of your children upon your heart in prayer (Exodus 28:29-30).
Entreater – entreating your children to keep a straight course in the ways of God.
You have the power to do all these things because you are in the heart of your home.
NANCY CAMPBELL
Editress of Above Rubies,
www.aboverubies.org