Defining Womanhood

At certain times growing up, I heard pastors and teachers say that they felt like their message was directed more at themselves than anyone else. I'm going to start by making a similar claim. This post is directed at myself today as I fight the urge to feel self pity and irritation. The goal is to remind myself how to live out the beauty of the gospel even when my feelings internally whisper selfish desires. "I love you, but I just don't like you right now." Have you ever thought or even spoken these words to someone close to you? I admit that this phrase has crossed my mind many times over the course of my life. It has been directed to those closest to me such as my parents, my brother, my husband, and even my two-year-old daughter. (That's low!) What is really at the heart of disliking someone you love, and how can we transform our thinking in moments of dislike? What is really at the heart of disliking someone you love?   Let's answer this question wi...

I have always enjoyed listening to statistics on different subjects. I am a very visual learner, so when a pastor or speaker presents a statistic for what they are discussing, I am then able to create a visual of the impact those numbers represent. I recently came across a Barna study that compiled survey information from 1991 to 2011 concerning differences in men and women's faith over the course of those twenty years. I will just be focusing on the statistics for women throughout the remainder of the post. This may not be the most current information, but I believe the conclusion is just as relevant today. This study tracked surveys in relation to fourteen religious beliefs and behaviors of significance. Here are the opening lines from the article. "No population group among the sixty segments examined has gone through more spiritual changes in the past two decades than women. Of the 14 religious factors studied, women have experienced statistically significant changes ...