Good morning! I hope your week was a good one. We are preparing for a violin recital this evening, which is exciting. I have a senior this year, so it is also bittersweet. So many “lasts” are occurring right now!

Speaking of lasts, last week we talked about chapters 5 and 6 in the short book, Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot. This has been such a encouraging time of reading for me! Yes ladies, we were created to be women, and walking in that role brings many blessings into our lives.

Chapter 7 is titled, “The Right Kind of Pride.” Now, I must say first that in my humble opinion there really isn’t a kind of “righteous pride.” Scripture always talks about pride in a negative light. Now, the Lord did say that His creation was good, and He was quite accomplished for creating the world and everything in it. But I hesitate to use the word “pride.”

That being said, the meat of the chapter is about how we can “be in love with our destiny.” I firmly believe this to be true. As Christian women, we would do well to accept and love the path the Lord put before us. As Jim Elliot once said, “Wherever you are, be all there.” We should strive to be “all there” for our families each and every day, knowing that our calling as women, wives, and mothers is a great one.

Elisabeth spoke to Valerie about how she experienced distinctions between men and women at a very early age during their time with the South American Indians. Men and women intrinsically knew their places and roles. Valerie herself had “divinely given” knowledge about her femininity while growing up in South America as a young child.

The warning that stuck out to me from the chapter was, “A few women whose vision is grotesquely distorted are trying to redefine for us a woman’s ‘success’ and to tell us that our happiness lies not in the idea of God in the making of us but in obliterating that idea altogether.” We now live in a time when the collective culture is doing what it can to obliterate the idea of God making us as a unique gender meant for His specific purposes. We must continue in His ways, ladies. His ways and purposes are always best.

Chapter 8 speaks about perspective. I love the way Elisabeth encourages women to embrace their gifts and calling here. We need to do our best to look at our design as women as awe inspiring. After all, the Lord created us. We should be grateful for our design, and even our “limitations” when compared to men. (Which I personally don’t believe are limitations at all!)

Elisabeth writes, “The special gift and ability of each creature defines it’s special limitations. And as the bird easily comes to terms with the necessity of bearing wings when it finds that it is, in fact, the wings that bear the bird- up, away from the world, into the sky, into freedom- so the woman who accepts the limitations of womanhood finds in those very limitations her gifts, her special calling- wings, if fact, which bear her up into perfect freedom, into the will of God.”

I love how Elisabeth shares how “accepting the limitations of womanhood” can bring us to perfect freedom. From our inward nature, to our physical abilities, to our outward appearance. All of it can be used by God for His purposes.

Elisabeth writes about Gladys Alyward as an example. Growing up, she felt that her “sorrows” were her short stature and dark hair. Once she arrived in China as a missionary, she realized that the Lord “knew what He was doing.” She fit in perfectly.

Let us remember that the Lord knows what He is doing, and we should fully accept who we are as women.

If you would like to follow along with this study, you can purchase Let Me Be a Woman here. Let’s meet back here next week. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I hope you have a lovely weekend!

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