It’s important to take special care to maintain femininity. Especially in our culture which seems to be doing away with all distinctions of gender. I don’t want my girls to ever fall for the lies the world has to offer on this issue. Men and women are different. Women can’t do anything a man can do. And this isn’t just ok, it’s very good. It’s God’s wonderful design, He has created a divine order whether we like it or not. I want my daughters to like it.I want them to be certain that God made them little women and to seek to please Him in their “womaness”. I want them to enjoy being little girls for as long as they can then become the little ladies, the little women, that God in His goodness has made them. I want them to look forward to the rewards that God gives only to women and may someday give to them; submitting to their husbands, bearing and raising children, taking care of their home by making it a place of love, cleanliness, order, kindness and simple pleasures.
I want them to be feminine in the ways they behave, dress and speak, with modesty and politeness. Even if they grow up only wanting to play baseball, skinning their knees and hating baths, I still expect their character to be of godly ladies.
Of course I know all of this begins with ME! So it is my goal to be more aware of my own gifts of femininity, guard them and demonstrate them to my little ladies. Many of these gifts come so naturally to us women, we don’t even think about them but some are so maimed with our sin we can be very careless in neglecting them or even denying them.
There are so many simple things I can do to begin teaching the girls the delights of womanhood. I’ll admit some are not so simple, it’s not always easy to submit, to “love” being pregnant, enjoy rearing children or keeping a clean home, and everyone at our house knows how much I love frumpy stained t-shirts and sweatpants, but I want to do a better job at emphasizing the joys over the burdens and the beauty over the blah.
“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful.” 1 Peter 3
I like this!
Amen! Aubri, you have a lovely gift for writing and, more importantly, you are writing quality stuff! It is a blessing to see my beautiful niece striving to be a godly woman and passing those characteristics on to her children. I love you, Aunt Leah.