More like her

I decided at the beginning of the summer that I wanted to learn more about the women of the Bible on my own. Admittedly, I haven't sought out information about the matriarchs of the Bible before, and boy oh boy was I in for a treat!

I think I was most curious about these women because of the way my family is shaped. We do not have patriarchs, we have matriarchs. My grandfathers died before I was born, so I was loved by my grandmothers. I don't have many uncles, but a ton of aunts. And many of my cousins that are close to my age are female. Even in my own immediate family it is the same. My dad is more hands off so my mom is the one involved in the daily goings on of the family. The same is true of my niece and nephew's father. He works afternoons and doesn't play as big of a role in the daily life of his children. 

I didn't exactly go about things in an orderly fashion, just tried to follow where the Spirit led me.

I have studied Lydia, Rebekah, Sarah, Hagar, the Proverbs 31 woman, Rahab, Gomer, Job's wife, Hannah, Samson's mother, Delilah, and Tamar.

I have really enjoyed learning about these women. They all have the most interesting stories and play such huge parts in the stories that were so familiar to me from my years in Christian school and church, but I never realized it! Sermons tend to center on the men of the Bible that do great things. But what about the women that were holding down the fort, encouraging, shaping, loving, molding, and raising these men? Samuel would never have lived to do great things if Hannah had not prayed and wept and trusted God for him. There are 3 women named in the lineage of Christ, that's important! Men were able to rise above the others because of the women they could trust to manage their homes. Women opened their homes to disciples and cared for them. Or hid spies in her country to protect them from the wrath (based in fear) of the armies of her country. Men were tempted by these women too. They fell to their deception and even lusted after their beauty. They were raised by incredible women and raised sweet little girls to become incredible women.

I want to be more like these women and learn from these women. They have valuable things to teach us. I want to have faith like Hannah, and be strong like Lydia, and fearless like Rahab. I want to be blessed like Sarah, and obedient like Ruth. And I also want to learn from the women like Delilah and Potiphar's wife. And learn to protect myself from Bathsheba's story. I want to learn to trust God from the distrust of the wife of Job. And remember to put God first from the story of Gomer. But most of all, I want to be a willing servant like Rebekah.

I read this quote from a website about Rebekah, it said, "The godliness of Rebekah is what opened the door to her destiny. She was not complaining of her situation, but rather allowed the love of God to shape her life." She was an answer to prayer! She wasn't complaining about her lot in life, she was living in the knowledge that she was created for a greater purpose than anything she had imagined for herself. Isn't that amazing?? I want to be like that!!!

I want to strive every day to become more like the wonderful women of the Bible. The way I see it, if God put them into the Bible, there's a good chance they are there for a pretty good reason!

Who is your favorite Bible character?