Does Theology Matter for Women?
What does the word theology mean to you?
For many, this stiff and solemn word conjures up images of dusty hardback books, dim library aisles, and dull hour-long sermons.
And as a busy woman, the concept of theology might not even cause a blip on your radar screen. If you’re a wife and mother in the season of diapers, sleep training, ABC’s, and tantrums, the idea of studying anything might be overwhelming.
I can relate. Gone are the days when I immersed myself in thick tomes per the directions of my syllabus. No longer do I have assignments to read the entire book of Romans once a week, or write a paper on the fulfillment of Messianic promises.
Instead, I am tired much of the time. I am busy… chasing a baby who army-crawls toward shoes and electrical wires… making dinner and washing dishes… sorting, washing, and folding laundry… grocery shopping and meal planning… cleaning bathrooms and sweeping floors.
And when I am done, or too tired to continue, sadly I am often too lazy to make the effort to read something significant. Or anything at all.
I don’t mean to complain. I love my job. I love being a wife and mother, and I take joy in it from the moment I get my sweet baby out of his crib in the morning, showering his cheeks with kisses. But it’s exhausting. And it’s easy to use my busyness as an excuse to forget the important things. The eternal things.
After all, Jesus didn’t come just to be positive and encouraging (contrary to what many Christian radio stations would have you believe). He has a powerful message. He makes demands. His words pierce like a sword. He calls out hypocrites. He calls out sinners. He is in very nature God.
Theology is the study of God.
And it matters! It matters eternally! It is not irrelevant. It is not meant to be left to professors and scholars. What we believe about God, down to the details, affects our eternity and our lives here on earth profoundly.
If we fear this God, if we truly want to know Him, if we love Him, then we will study Him. We should not use the excuse of being wives and mothers. God wants the women of His church to be rock-solid in their theology. To understand His sovereignty. To understand His jealousy. To understand His love. And to be growing in knowledge and grace.
Does this mean I have to read 100 pages of Calvin’s Institutes daily? Hardly! Does this mean I become a legalist or reduce my faith to mere intellectualism? No!
It just means I need to care. It means I need to have a heart to study the Lord and His attributes…
- through His revealed Word, the Bible,
- and through the Biblically grounded teaching of faithful Christians.
Studying theology will look different for me than for you. It might be as simple as meditating deeply on Hebrews 10:10 for 10 minutes before my day begins… or listening to a sermon while I’m washing dishes… or learning what God’s immutable attributes are.
Not so I can be a know-it-all who thinks I’m always right… but because learning to know and love the Lord is never a waste, but the greatest lesson in the universe.
Adding Hours
I was 20 years old.
It was the fall semester of my junior year in college.
Three friends and I were on a Saturday trip to Chicago.
I worried then.
Worrisome subjects for me were homework, public speaking, the future, my weight, singleness, friendships, living situations, and being an obedient child of God.
Now I’m 23.
It’s getting close to fall, but I live in Florida and you can’t tell.
This picture was taken on the Fourth of July, walking to meet A.J. and Christian.
I worry now too.
Worrisome subjects for me now are housework, being a good wife, being a good mother, staying in shape, marriage, my health, and learning how to be disciplined under grace.
I imagine myself filling in the blanks with pictures of when I’m 26, and 29, and 32, and 35, etc., if the Lord keeps me here that long.
I wonder what I will look like. I wonder what I’ll be doing, where we’ll live, how many children we’ll have. I wonder what I will worry about.
Worrying has not added a single hour to my life.
I will always have things to be anxious about. But when I feel that anxiety rising up within me, I can choose to dwell on it, or I can choose to trust. I can choose to grasp for control, or I can choose to lean on the one who has control.
I know this, but much too often fail to put it into practice.
What do you worry about? What did you used to worry about? Does thinking about the Lord’s faithfulness in response to those former worries, encourage you in the anxieties you are facing today?
Homemaking IS hard… if we take it seriously
Photo by ~K~
Welcome back to the series “Is It Really That Hard?” Read the intro (and all of the wonderful comments!) here.
I loved what all of you had to say in response to my last entry. I think we all agree that being a wife and mom isn’t easy. It comes with a unique set of challenges, whether you stay home full-time or not. A few of you talked about the different seasons of motherhood, some being easier than others.
The conclusion I came to as I thought about it and read your comments was that this calling, this being a wife and a mama and the one who prioritizes home, is especially hard if we take it seriously.
If you have a high standard for serving your family, if you’re determined not to be lazy, if you’re putting others first, then it’s going to be amazingly hard. It’s going to take constant self-denial. As my dad put it in his comment, it requires “absolute selflessness.”
Last night I fell asleep after midnight. About an hour later, Christian was awake and crying to be fed. (I think he’s going through a growth spurt.) I was so behind on sleep that it was literally physically difficult to get up. I was not in the best frame of mind as I fed him and put him back down. I felt guilty and was reminded that Jesus said when you serve “the least of these,” you are doing it as unto Him. If motherhood is hard, then it offers the perfect situation for a follower of Christ!
The difficulty has opened my eyes to my selfishness and laziness. I took my independence for granted.
I think just as with any other achievement, when homemaking is done well it can look easy. My mother made it look that way. I gave little thought to the sleep she was losing when I woke up in the middle of the night and asked her to tuck me back in. I didn’t think about how much effort went into shopping for a meal, preparing it, and cleaning up after it when I complained that it wasn’t my favorite. I felt misused when she asked for occasional help with housework.
I didn’t know because she didn’t tell me. She served my dad, my sisters, and me, made our home a pleasant place to be, taught us, cooked and cleaned for us, did our laundry, and kept a smile on her face. (I’m not implying she was June Cleaver, but she was pretty close!)
My dream is to make it look easy too… to make our home a place where children grow and their bodies and souls are nourished… to pray for their salvation and disciple them… to serve the church and reach out to the lost and needy.
It’s a big dream. I can’t do it alone. It’s not easy. But it’s what I’m called to do… whether the world thinks I’m wasting my time or not.
