God’s Plan For Women

God’s Plan For Women by Betty Fritz 

Growing up, I was probably the biggest tomboy in our neighborhood, often wishing I was a boy…. Boys had all the good stuff: baseballs, bats and gloves, footballs. Being a girl always seemed to get in the way of my being included. When I voiced my concerns to my mom, she told me if I could kiss my elbow, I would turn into a boy. Believe me, I about broke my neck trying, but finally decided I would just have to deal with it…and so would the boys.

Nothing felt better than hitting a home run or kicking a football as far as any boy could. I didn’t do quite as well at marbles or spinning tops but I gave them a few good battles. Still, I often heard: “You can’t….cause you’re a girl!”

The middle boy, of the three who lived next door, was around my age. One day he asked me to race him around the block. He had gotten new sneakers and wanted to try them out. I told him, if I could take my shoes off, I’d race him. It was close, but beating him felt so good! I couldn’t help but make fun of his “new shoes”….till he turned and went home, kicking the ground and looking so sad. I called after him and offered him another chance, but he shook his head and went inside.

I felt a twinge of guilt. Maybe I didn’t always have to win. After all, he could have asked any of the boys to race him, but he had asked me… maybe just because I was a girl …. Anyway, I hoped he didn’t decide not to like his new shoes.

As I got older, being a girl didn’t seem so bad. It was actually nice to be included without having to fight for the right. When a boy held the door for me or let me go first, I didn’t feel resentment anymore or like he was trying to make allowances for me just because I was a girl. Pretty soon, fixing my hair or wearing a dress for a special occasion actually wasn’t so bad. Maybe I could handle this being a girl thing after all.

The years passed and there was more and more talk about women’s rights and women’s liberation. I was kind of “on the fence” about how this could play out and wasn’t sure how the outcome would effect society…or me for that matter. Equal pay for equal work sounded good… but soon, women were demanding equality in everything. Females were wanting to join the Boy Scouts, play on the male football teams and refusing to allow a member of the opposite sex to even open a door for them…. It sounded more and more like the way I’d felt as a kid fighting to make the boys let me play. Like many good things, people take ideas to the extreme until the results look nothing like the original thought.

Looking at the women in the Bible, we find just how far we’ve come in our search for equality. From Eve to the virgin Mary we find women who lied, cheated, schemed and killed, plus those who were loyal, listened, labored and witnessed alongside their husbands. Some were leaders of nations and some were followers of God. I found that the most important thing to most women in the Old Testament was their ability to have children.  To be barren, to them, was to be worthless in the eyes of their husbands and the world. Husbands were to rule over their wives and the women were to desire to please their husbands…. this, along with pain in child bearing, was God’s punishment to Eve and womankind, for eating the forbidden fruit. Genesis 3:16.

In 1 Corinthians we find women were not allowed to speak or give opinions in church and were to keep their heads covered when prophesying. This was the rule of the church that Paul had established in Corinth and most others in existence at that time. Luckily, the rules changed through the ages and now women are a very important part of the church… even allowed to be pastors in many denominations. We now have women firefighters, police, lawyers, judges and even soldiers. Every opportunity is available to all.

The question is: What are we doing with these opportunities? Too often, women tend to act like men… in the way they talk, especially. There is nothing more disgraceful to me than a woman who cusses like a sailor and yells at her kids to “shut up!” The most damaging aspect of women wanting to be treated equally is the way it changed the dynamics of our families. I prefer the years when typically the man worked to support his family and the woman stayed home and took care of the children. Unfortunately, nowadays both men and women have to work in order to meet the costs of living. This means the family unit suffers and makes raising children even more difficult.

With God’s help and infinite wisdom, we still can raise our children with the right moral standards.  First, we have to insure that we have God in our own lives.  Proverbs 31:10-31 tells us the attributes found in a virtuous woman, whose “price is far above rubies.” Virtuous women are trustworthy, hard working, feed and clothe their families, strong, wise and never lazy. They offer a helping hand to the poor and needy. Proverbs 31: 28 says, “Her children arise up and call her blessed: her husband also, and he praiseth her.” Verse 30: “Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.”

Woman’s Lib is not all bad, but it should not be taken to the point that it makes the men in our lives feel insignificant or not needed. There is nothing wrong with God’s plan that women be a helpmate and a partner to their husbands. Neither one should feel superior to the other, but work together. “Love one another” and “Be ye kind” are great advice found in God’s word…and it works well when applied at home where the man is the head of the family and God is head of all.

We women do foolish things at times, and are considered the weaker sex, but we should not despair. In 1Cor. 1: 27 we find:  “…God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”

About Betty Fritz:

My name is Betty Fritz. I was born and raised in Texas but have resided in Elkhart, Indiana for the last 25 years. My husband is a Hoosier so that’s how we wound up here. We have two daughters and a son plus 6 grand kids…..3 boys and 3 girls.

I retired last year after working for 24 years at Elkhart Child Development Center. I’ve been writing since a teenager and have taken several writing courses. I enjoy writing short stories. I wrote a book of poems, RHYMES OF THE TIMES, which was published a few years ago. I have written countless songs, a few for which demo recordings have been made. Recently I’ve been writing blogs..most of them about my faith and things the Lord has taught me in my Christian life over the last 51 years. My inspiration comes from my personal relationship with Jesus Christ and my desire to see that my grand children grow up in a Christian nation. My goal is to bring glory to Him and help others to see that there is POWER in the name of JESUS!