Women are crying out for help in the church, today. Who cares?
| Posted On: 08/06/07 11:17:12 AM |
Age 26, NJ |
Your greatest point, which hit home like a ton of bricks, is that older women in the church are to TEACH young women how to be women. So many Christian women, like myself, come from secular homes and have unsaved parents. Now that I am a single grown woman, who can help me? Why does no one care about me enough to help me be a woman? Please piggyback this article to address woman like me, who struggle now. No one has cared enough about me to train me to be a woman. And every church I go to has either NO woman's discipleship or they have a cheesy once a month women's group, which doesn't cut it because it is usually a tea party with a guest speaker who doesn't know anyone in the room. I care for my young sisters in Christ and disciple them as best I can, including having them sleep over my apt. and talking to them about woman things. They all agree that this is a problem and they are so so lost and so confused about what it means to be a woman. I try my best with the little I know as God reveals and teaches me. But, who will care for me? I am not ready for marriage and it looks like I will have to rely on some book to expound on scripture to help me prepare. Please pray for "our kind". We are probably the MOST neglected in the church today. Single women. We are looked at as liabilities and no one wants to deal with us, especially married Chrsitian women. No one seems to care but will whisper about the problem.
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Re: It's 911 Time for Christian Girlhood
| Posted On: 05/16/07 10:01:03 PM |
Age 30, FL |
I agree that many of the role models out there for young girls are atrocious. But I would blame President Bush, not feminists, for 18-year-old former cheerleaders being sent into combat in Iraq.
Secondly, not all girls will get married. Mary Magdalene never married or had children, as far as we know. She was one of the great champions of faith in the Bible. As far as women pursuing careers, Luke 8:30 suggests that Jesus was financially supported by women. I would assume that was their own personal money, since their husbands are not also mentioned as supporters. Baby girls born with AIDS or other diseases are unlikely to ever get married.
And a woman with such a short, mannish haircut is not in a position to lecture others about femininity.
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Re: It's 911 Time for Christian Girlhood
| Posted On: 04/28/07 06:17:49 PM |
Age 56, ID |
Thank you for the wonderful article. I am an Independent Baptist Pastor, and I am going to share this from the pulpit. God bless you for your stand.
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Re: It's 911 Time for Christian Girlhood
| Posted On: 02/03/07 07:24:14 AM |
Age 42, AL |
Ingrid, you are dead on! Excellent article.
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Re: It's 911 Time for Christian Girlhood
| Posted On: 02/03/07 06:23:09 AM |
Age 42, VA |
Thank you for this timely article! The mother of a middle school aged daughter who is home schooled we also began 'home keeping' chores early on. I have a disability and our daughter is very willing to help out. She has been taught, by example, to esteem others higher than herself through helping dad stack wood, make a meal, fold laundry, etc. As to the modesty, an excellent resource we went through at age 9 and 10 was Modesty: Does God Really Care What I Wear? by Nancy Lee DeMoss. Did it work? Yes! She asks her father's opinion if uncertain about an outfit (ie, jeans are almost outgrown.."Daddy, are these inappropriate to wear?") I recommend this resource as it is affordable and well worth it.
My husband and I know God will reward the efforts of parents committed to rear their children to be 'set apart' for His Service.
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Re: It's 911 Time for Christian Girlhood
| Posted On: 02/01/07 05:22:42 PM |
Age 53, WI |
A critical topic and a well written article. Parents must understand that they are front line and churches must actively and self-sacrifically stand in the gap. Do not loose heart though. The darker the night the greater the effectiveness of the Light of World. Our daughters will revile the world to what ever degree they love Christ. An alertness to the Evil One's ploy's, a healthy respect for the dangers of the World and humility to address one's own sinful nature will serve our children well.
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Re: It's 911 Time for Christian Girlhood
| Posted On: 02/01/07 12:58:58 PM |
Age 41, PA |
Fantastic! Can we get a follow-up about boys???
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Re: It's 911 Time for Christian Girlhood
| Posted On: 02/01/07 12:50:22 PM |
Age 60, MO |
You are right on with your article, Ingrid. I have appreciated much that you have done in the past with Slice and so have some of my friends:
"What did you think of Slice of Laodicea shutting down and coming back as Christian Research Net? I suspect some of these discern ministries receive a fair amount
of "hate" mail and hacking attempts against their websites and that it must be an emotionally and spiritually taxing job to do what they do."
Needless to say I agree with him.
It is hard to plant good Biblical values when the parents of your own church are immature enough to make the following statement when chaperoning the kids at a recent skating outing: "You girls stay close to Matthew. You got to protect your territory." I know that is not that bad, but it's not that Biblical either. I don't want my daughter approaching the opposite sex as some sort of object. I encourage conversation and am not so prudish as to disallow any verbal contact whatsoever, but I want it to be such that they can get to know each other as if they might be potential marriage partners.
Our daughter (15)expresses a great deal of maturity when it comes to responsibility with household chores, and is able to take charge whenever necessary. We allow her to babysit for another toddler, but only in our home.
"But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charty, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becomes holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blashpemed." (Titus 2:1-5).
George
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Re: It's 911 Time for Christian Girlhood
| Posted On: 02/01/07 10:20:58 AM |
Age 40, TX |
There is a lot of good info in this article. As the father of 4 with 2 daughters and one daughter on the way (we are adopting a second one) I will be accountable to God for how I raised my three daughters. I want to add one thing to the many things Ingrid pointed out. A major cause of sexual promiscuity among teen girls is lack of affection from their fathers. I make sure that my daughters get hugs and I love you at least three times a day. I read them Scripture and pray with them. My goal is that they would look for that in a husband. A spiritual leader that will read the Word of God with them, pray with them, and meet their physical and emotional needs in an appropriate biblical marriage. Press On, Darren.
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- Re: Re: It's 911 Time for Christian Girlhood
| Posted On: 02/01/07 03:24:04 PM | | Age 60, MO |
The following reply is quoted from Patrick Morley, "The Man in the Mirror."
"Family life has changed a lot over the last thirty years since I was a boy. In the late '50s the average number of children in the American home was 3.7, today it is about 1.9. But more remarkable than the change in family size is the change in family values.
Dawson McAllister, who specializes in ministry to teens, notes that over one million teenage girls become pregnant each year. By highschool graduation, seventy percent of girls and eighty percent of boys have lost their virginity.
The pressure on young people today takes its toll. A 1987 survey, sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services and Health Education Groups, polled eleven thousand eigth graders and tenth graders on health-related issues. One of the results will jar you: eighteen percent of the girls and eleven percent of the boys have actually tried to commit suicide. The emotional pain young people experience is overwhelming. Dr. James Dobson, the respected Christian phsycologist cites research done by Urie Bronfenbrenner. Wanting to determine how much time middle class fathers spent in contact with their kids each day, they asked these men to estimate the amount of time spent each day with their one-year old kids. The average response was fifteen to twenty minutes.
But then they attached microphones to the shirts of the kids to record actual parental interaction. The results are shocking. The average amount of daily time each dad spent with his kids was thirty-seven seconds.
Unfortunately, this scene replays in millions of homes across America every day. Christian homes are just as susceptible to this malady. Compare these thirty-seven second encounters with the fact that the same child watches between four and seven hours of TV each day, and we can anticipate a frightening, apocalyptic future."
George
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Re: It's 911 Time for Christian Girlhood
| Posted On: 02/01/07 08:57:06 AM |
Age 50, TX |
Amen, sister. Churches are being disobedient by failing to have older men teach younger men, as well. We who love the Lord more than the praise of men must not grow weary in prayerfully pushing our churches back to the Bible.
The family depends on God's Word being obeyed. The church and the family exist to glorify God by obeying His Word. We have nothing but feeble excuses. It's time to rise up and have done with lesser things.
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