Titus 2:3-5
In the same way instruct the older women to behave as women should who live a holy life. They must not be slanderers or slaves to wine. They must teach what is good, in order to train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, and to be good housewives who submit themselves to their husbands, so that no one will speak evil of the message that comes from God.
Have you ever felt like you needed to portray the life of a Barbie Christian?
Titus 2 calls women to train up the next generation of young women in Godliness.
My question is: How are we going to do this when we're trying so hard to look like a Plastic Barbie Christian, made from an assembly line. Where everything is OK, and we are Sinless. I fear what we're truly accomplishing is training the next generation of Smiling Plastic Christians!
I'm not sure what the deal is. Is it that we feel we're supposed to have the "Joy of the Lord" and if we struggle with that at moments then we fear others will see us as "lesser christians." When the "Joy of the Lord" can Only come through Christ alone and a Practiced, Surrendered life.
How are we going to teach each other and the younger women how to live a Holy life in Pursuit of their Savior if we are busier covering up our faults than we are recognizing our failures and noticing sin in our own lives.
It's hard, it takes practice and dying to self. If our children learn best by example; don't you think it's important for our children to see us submit to our husbands or disagree with him in a Holy way. Instead of hiding our disagreements with our spouse or others, why don't we pursue a life that teaches our children and others how to handle this respectfully and biblically.
(Yes, I believe there is a Holy way to disagree with your spouse. The most I've grown spiritually since I've been married to him is when we get into good debates. He has taught me SO much, and I pray I've taught him. "As iron sharpens Iron" I have a Great marriage because we sharpen each other, and I go into the discussion realizing I can't always be right. -even though I like to be :) )
How are they going to know how to disagree if we don't teach them as Christ taught us.
Ephesians 4:26
“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,"
Christ did not call us to a life of passiveness, overlooking everything. I think that our being fed this lie, "That a christian is polite and quiet" has played a huge role in our current corrupt culture and current corrupt church.
Hear what I am saying. Don't read into this that you should argue in a selfish, self-centered, I have to win this fight, knock down drag out argument with your spouse infront of your children - I said Holy & selfless!
1 Peter 2:1-3
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Ephesians 4:25, 27-32
Therefore, putting away lying, “ Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,”for we are members of one another. nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.
And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Here's the thing. I'm a sinner and Oh I'm pretty good at it. I struggle with my attitude. I struggle with every one of the Fruits of the Spirit. I have failed in most every way miserably.
I'm not okay with that. I want my life to be a living reflection of Christ to everyone I come in contact with. I'm not always right, I don't know everything.
I pursue HIM and HE pursues His perfection in me. Not a pasted on smile and rose colored lenses. He desires me to see the world through HIS eyes, with His heart.
There's no way for me to do that in my own strength.
A wise man learns from someone else's mistakes. If I want my children to be wise, don't I need to show them how much I struggle to throw off the "old self" don't I need to teach them humility and how to pursue our Savior. Don't I need to show them my failures and brokenness?
I don't want to show everyone a "mock perfection." I don't want to be a Barbie Christian. I want my life to be a humble, honest reflection of where I am in my walk with Him!
HIS Clay~
(It is Sunday, I wrote this post last night. I am home with a sick little girl so I had the opportunity to pull up a message by one of my Favorite Pastors Clayton King and talk about a follow up! Holy Mercy, goes right along with the heart behind "Barbie Christian". I pray that you are able to find 40mins to listen. You can pause, and rewind. Perfect for this busy mommy :)
Have you ever felt like you needed to portray the life of a Barbie Christian?Titus 2 calls women to train up the next generation of young women in Godliness.
My question is: How are we going to do this when we're trying so hard to look like a Plastic Barbie Christian, made from an assembly line. Where everything is OK, and we are Sinless. I fear what we're truly accomplishing is training the next generation of Smiling Plastic Christians!
I'm not sure what the deal is. Is it that we feel we're supposed to have the "Joy of the Lord" and if we struggle with that at moments then we fear others will see us as "lesser christians." When the "Joy of the Lord" can Only come through Christ alone and a Practiced, Surrendered life.
How are we going to teach each other and the younger women how to live a Holy life in Pursuit of their Savior if we are busier covering up our faults than we are recognizing our failures and noticing sin in our own lives.
It's hard, it takes practice and dying to self. If our children learn best by example; don't you think it's important for our children to see us submit to our husbands or disagree with him in a Holy way. Instead of hiding our disagreements with our spouse or others, why don't we pursue a life that teaches our children and others how to handle this respectfully and biblically.
(Yes, I believe there is a Holy way to disagree with your spouse. The most I've grown spiritually since I've been married to him is when we get into good debates. He has taught me SO much, and I pray I've taught him. "As iron sharpens Iron" I have a Great marriage because we sharpen each other, and I go into the discussion realizing I can't always be right. -even though I like to be :) )
How are they going to know how to disagree if we don't teach them as Christ taught us.
Ephesians 4:26
“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,"
Christ did not call us to a life of passiveness, overlooking everything. I think that our being fed this lie, "That a christian is polite and quiet" has played a huge role in our current corrupt culture and current corrupt church.
Hear what I am saying. Don't read into this that you should argue in a selfish, self-centered, I have to win this fight, knock down drag out argument with your spouse infront of your children - I said Holy & selfless!
1 Peter 2:1-3
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Ephesians 4:25, 27-32
Therefore, putting away lying, “ Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,”for we are members of one another. nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.
And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Here's the thing. I'm a sinner and Oh I'm pretty good at it. I struggle with my attitude. I struggle with every one of the Fruits of the Spirit. I have failed in most every way miserably.
I'm not okay with that. I want my life to be a living reflection of Christ to everyone I come in contact with. I'm not always right, I don't know everything.
I pursue HIM and HE pursues His perfection in me. Not a pasted on smile and rose colored lenses. He desires me to see the world through HIS eyes, with His heart.
There's no way for me to do that in my own strength.
A wise man learns from someone else's mistakes. If I want my children to be wise, don't I need to show them how much I struggle to throw off the "old self" don't I need to teach them humility and how to pursue our Savior. Don't I need to show them my failures and brokenness?
I don't want to show everyone a "mock perfection." I don't want to be a Barbie Christian. I want my life to be a humble, honest reflection of where I am in my walk with Him!
HIS Clay~
(It is Sunday, I wrote this post last night. I am home with a sick little girl so I had the opportunity to pull up a message by one of my Favorite Pastors Clayton King and talk about a follow up! Holy Mercy, goes right along with the heart behind "Barbie Christian". I pray that you are able to find 40mins to listen. You can pause, and rewind. Perfect for this busy mommy :)
Wow! A one two punch!! My husband and I are also so concerned about the current corrupt church, and you nailed it about the 'practiced' plastic mold everyone has to fit in to be a super Christian. We left the mega church setting about 3 1/2 yrs ago to join in a small family-integrated body of believers- we all had known each other from the past. We all felt we had to find an alternative to the materialistic modern church and the Lord led it to happen quickly...about 15 families. It isn't perfect, but it helps with the "image' problem that even we parents had slipped into...looking and smelling good, but on the inside we hid our neediness for God and his Word. We were plastic, too!!! It IS a continual struggle to let the guard down and be authentic and appropriately open about our challenges with humility. But with God's grace, we are all SO thankful to have broken away (not like a cult) from the huge church you can hide in.
ReplyDeleteI am blessed to see your passion and am thankful to be your friend and fellow 'claymate', Melissa!
Sweet Jacqueline,
ReplyDeleteI was thinking just the other day about you. I have met so many precious bloggy friends.
I read your posts and I think, "my goodness I'd love to spend time with her just to learn from her ridiculous amount of wisdom and talk about the Lord." Thank you for sharing all your wisdom! I pray I get to meet you one day!
What a wonderful post and exactly what I needed to read today after the week I have had.....and the music, "Show me your glory" is what I needed .......after I turned away from church because I was fearful....I just wanted to say thank you!
ReplyDeleteI'm not afraid!
This is so true, and made me think about something that I'm noticing a lot lately.
ReplyDeleteA woman shares her heart, struggles, issues, grief, etc. in a small group setting or one on one, and so often she is met with one of those bandaid responses. Scripture is slapped on her without true encouragement, understanding, or wisdom. Sometimes, another woman uses scripture or pat responses to put her in her place, look down their nose at her, build herself up at the other's expense, or just to feel like they've got it spiritually "together". The unauthentic nature of the response is rarely missed by the recipient. And it does damage.
It happens in the church setting. It happens in the blogging world. It happens in families. The result is often to become less vulnerable, less open, less real. More plastic. I guess what I'm saying is... plastic begets plastic.
It makes me so aware of how I respond to my spouse, friends, and kids when they tell me about their struggles. I don't want to discourage them from truly connecting, with me and with Jesus, because I'm focusing on something other than relationship.
Proverbial Homemaker- It absolutely breaks my heart to see Broken people carrying a stiff upper lip because they can't be real. Which guards them from true surrender to Christ. It breaks my heart to see an empty alter week after week because people are afraid that they will be talked about at the lunch table that afternoon, if they show their brokenness. Yup!
ReplyDeleteJolene- I am so blessed that it touched you! This song speaks Loud to my heart also!
"I pursue HIM and HE pursues His perfection in me. Not a pasted on smile and rose colored lenses. He desires me to see the world through HIS eyes, with His heart.
ReplyDeleteThere's no way for me to do that in my own strength."
Made my night, thank you!