As a child growing up in the eighties, I knew what every cereal-loving child of the eighties knew—if I wanted impressive biceps and athletic legs, I needed to eat my Wheaties. One of the images on the Wheaties box I distinctly remember from sitting at the breakfast table was the incredible gold-winning decathlete, Bruce Jenner. Winning the Olympic Decathlon is no small feat. It requires tremendous strength, agility, and speed. I remember looking at that cereal box and thinking, “My goodness, that is a man.” Then in June 2015, Bruce Jenner announced to the world that he was now a woman and would be called Caitlyn. It is the moment that I believe marked the modern-day war on womanhood.
Jenner’s announcement was followed the next year by the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, signed into North Carolina law in 2016, otherwise known as the “bathroom bill,” which touched off a firestorm of debate and dialogue surrounding gender. Since then, we have seen an onslaught of effort to whittle away at the definition of a woman through things like drag queen reading hours at public libraries, pronoun changes, men competing in women’s sports, and children “transitioning.” We are witnessing our culture’s continual drift from the Judeo-Christian values our nation was founded on, which makes it feel imperative for us to take some time to look to Scripture to see what it says about womanhood.
Before we go any further, let me state that I am not sharing from a heart full of anger or hate, nor do I believe we should ever encourage harming, hurting, or hating anyone in any way. The Scripture that we as Christians should build our lives upon teaches that we are not to hate anyone and that we are to love our neighbor. So, if we are serious about following Jesus and being salt and light as Christ-followers, we cannot attack others because of their beliefs or their lifestyle. As much as it depends on us, we should not ever want to bring harm to anyone. But as we strive to live a life of love and compassion, we also cannot move off the Word of God. We cannot affirm anything that does not align with Scripture – not in our own lives or anyone else’s.
This is why I want to invite you to join me for a series of blog posts on the biblical definition of a woman. We will be looking at what a woman is physically, spiritually, sexually, maternally, missionally, and relationally in light of God’s Word. Because if we as God’s people do not know God’s truths, we will be vulnerable to listening and following the world’s truths instead. Be sure to keep a watch on social media and here on the Living Worthy Ministries blog so you don’t miss a single post.
