A Woman

‎"...A woman who is living out her true design will be ‘valiant, vulnerable,
and scandalous.’ That’s a far cry from the ‘church ladies’ we hold up
as models of Christian femininity, those busy and tired and rigid women
who have reduced their hearts to a few mild desires and pretend
everything is going just great”
...(John Eldridge, Wild At Heart)

I hear these words and my entire being lets out a great big exhale. Yes please. No more frantic, lonely attempts to be "just right". No more expectations that a "godly" woman feeds her husband's ego until he explodes. No more false smiles. No more cringing from a deep and sorrowful heart cry simply because we are so terrified to observe our own broken hearts. No more backbiting and gossiping from beaten and abandoned hearts.

Let's all just say it how it is. Women are meant to be fully alive, wholly loved, deeply respected and rooted deep in healthy and faithful relationships. We are created to have strong and passionate emotions. We are formed, both internally and externally, to be lovely and strong.

Whoever wrote the manual (which, by the way is NOT the Bible) that says good Christian women should be weak and should "bear up" under someone's anger, addiction, selfishness and pride should be called to account.

Whoever decided that women as a whole should be superficial and flighty should spend a day immersed in the inner workings of a truly free woman. I think he/she would be surprised at what they find.

I've read a few articles about this passage from Wild At Heart - all of them fiercely offended that John Eldridge sees women in this light.

To John Eldridge, I say, "Hell Yes!"

Let's let women be WOMEN.

Not busy and tired shadows of who they are CREATED to be.

I'll step back down now.... ;)