The other day I received a lovely e-mail that spoke about Women of God.
It was indeed a lovely message, focusing on what a woman of God is and does. It mentioned so many things, and I must confess it took me a while to let it all sink in.
Women of God can also make mistakes, they are sometimes wrong and they have their flaws!
You become a Woman of God the very moment that you decide to leave behind your wrongful life and begin a new one with Jesus, obeying His will above yours and sacrificing you own ego.
Sometimes I receive emails and comments from women saying “Oh, how I wish I could be a woman of God like you…”
My dear friends, sometimes I ask myself “If these women really got to know me, with all my flaws and imperfections, would they still say that?”
Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I’m not a woman of God, I’m just saying that this “tag” is unfair to you because by thinking like this 2 things happen:
- - You end up thinking that it is impossible to become a woman of God and that you will never be good enough. This is wrong, very wrong!
- - Without even noticing, you begin to think that women of God are perfect and if by chance a woman that you consider Godly makes a mistake, you quickly judge her and conclude that she isn’t a woman of God after all. This is unfair, very unfair!
I’m going to tell you something… I, like you, struggle loads with my flaws, defects and mistakes but it is my faith that makes all the difference!
My faith is what makes me keep looking forward even after I make a mistake, it gives me strength to go on and it makes me believe that I can change myself and the situation!
I have daily battles; sometimes it’s my flesh that wants to get the best of me, my “hot temper” that many times ends up embarrassing me, it’s my brutal honesty that at times can be mistaken for cheekiness, forcing me to have to go back to the end of the line… it’s my struggle!
Please stop placing the women you admire in such high pedestals that you can’t even reach! The Lord Jesus is the only one that should be in that position!
You look at her and think “Oh how I wish I could be like her!”
It doesn’t matter who she is, she is not perfect! This sort of judgment on her is way too rigorous!
Our flaws and imperfections don’t prevent us from being women of God!
I'm guilty of that! Years ago, I would get scandalized to see one hair out of place on anyone I thought was a woman of God! Then, as time passed, and I 'grew up' I actually came to value these women a lot more.
ReplyDeleteThere's so much more to a person than the mistakes they make! If I had all my mistakes held against me, I wouldn't have a leg to stand on!
I really admire women who are constantly using their faith to overcome their flaws – for me that's a beautiful strength and an excellent example to follow!
I love this article. I read it a couple of months ago and tried to tell friends to go and read it but it was in Portuguese!!!
ReplyDeleteI think that this perception is a hindrance to so many young women in the church. Throughout my early teens I always thought that being a Woman of God was a status I would never achieve. Today I say: Faith is a wonderful thing!
Is true Gemma, this "Perfect Image" many have towards those who are on the altar, is so not true and to make it worse, makes one feel that they can never be a true woman or man of God.
ReplyDeleteThe difference between those who are on the altar and those who are not, is in the kind of sacrifice they make, the way of life, etc.
It doesn't mean that they have no faults nor are perfect.
On the altar or not, we all have mistakes and as long as they are in the faith, living by faith and not living in sin... We are all women and men of God.
Thanks for leaving your comments!
Same to you Nancy!
This is true, Thanks for that Post, how many times do we look at a woman of God you admire and think gosh I’ve got a longggggggggggg way to go! Like you said it’s wrong.
ReplyDeleteBut the great thing about looking up to God and Him alone is that you can never get disappointed. Furthermore sometimes hearing about the flaws someone has shows that we are all human and also, humbleness and sincerity, and I think those two things are imperative in a woman of God or we would never learn anything, cause we won’t have no one bold enough to hear it and learn it from.
Once again thanks for the post!
This is how we look at person and admire her of what she is and later if she do a mistake then we get disapointed because of what the person did,this is teaching us not to put our trust in humanbeing and lean that every people do mistake no meter the position.
ReplyDeleteHendrina-Namibia
This article should be read by everyone. There was a time in a meeting the youth pastor was indirectly saying that if you are not an assistant you are not a women of God. I was revolted at that but I used that as a point of reflection about my current stage spiritually to better myself for God because if I have the character of God evidently it will be seen by everyone regardless of my flaws.
ReplyDeleteDna Fernanda eu me lembro que todas as vezes que eu cometia algum erro o diabo falava na minha mente que eu nao era de Deus e algumas pessoas que eu conheci até sairam da igreja por achar que nao eram bons cristaos até o dia que um pregador me ensinou que os meus erros mostram pra Deus o quanto eu sou pequena e que sem Deus nada posso fazer na época eu li também um livro que falava das pessoas que estavam perdidas dentro da igreja aí eu percebi que ser de Deus nao é ser perfeito mas sim perseverar em nos aperfeiçoar na presença de Deus e Deus é fiel pra tornar possivel o desejo do nosso caraçao.
ReplyDeleteGod Bless You
ReplyDeleteEverything you have just said has helped a lot cos when i get angry and lose my temper I feel like I have fallen so far and that I will never be saved but thank you for letting me know that faith can make a difference
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ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this blog, yes it is so true how we look at Women of God. When I first come to church I used to feel so low and intimated by the pastors wives. I would hold back things that I needed guidance from I just felt that if I went to them they would look down on me.
ReplyDeleteSince being in the Sisterhood I have learnt that these women of God are just like me they have their problems and flaws but what makes them different from other women in the world is their faith and relationship with God.
I lost so many opportunities to learn from the women of God around me because I used to place them in the highest place. However I have now come to see that just like them I can be a woman of God too. Being a woman of God is not limited to some women or only the special, it is us that limits God from working in us and in our lives.
I appreciate your thoughts on this. There are pastor's wives that I thought I could never be like. They seemed so complete to me; incapable of making a mistake. This is far from the truth and more of a mistake on my part. Bottom line: if there were many of us perfect and without blame, there would have been no need for Jesus to sacrifice Himself. We are sinners by nature. I need to remember that always. Making mistakes does not make us any less of a person or any less loved by God. My main focus is to become the woman that God designed me to be.
ReplyDeletethe woman of God.. I used to have the same thoughts about pastors wives that they were more closer to God, and that I was too rebel to be like 1 of them, plus I had strong character to be submissive but now i know i was wrong and when you give your life to jesus is possible to change.
ReplyDeleteHey Mrs. Nanda
ReplyDeleteThank you for this message. I would think all that stuff too. But I know that I am a woman of God because I have decided to leave behind the old me and start a new.
Alcy Gomez
(Catedral)
This is very helpful for me because I usually think so highly of the women of God around me. Although I know they are human, sometimes I can't help but feel that I will never be able to be like them. But I know it is wrong, and it is definitely something I have to work on.
ReplyDeleteBeen a woman of God, everyday we find things that need to be changed inside of us because we are not perfect.
ReplyDeleteAll of us can become better and better!!!
Karla Cristina
Even the simple words 'Woman of God' conjures up this image of unrealistic perfection in your mind and measuring up to it just seem so impossible! but we forget that the woman of God is simply the woman who decided to live God's way and fights every day to maintain her faith and please Him. This post was a nice reminder of that.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great message! We can all live up to be a woman of God, and it isn't near perfection, because nobody's perfect! It's a better woman, for yourself, and for others too(:
ReplyDeleteThis is a great message its very true how sometimes many women in church thinks that to be a woman of God, you need to be Pastor wife or and assistant.They dont realize that they can be one also ,because its between her and God she just need to seek the presence of God.Woman of God are not perfect because they are human.Today is my 2nd day reading this blog and i really like it because it help as woman see how we truelly are. May GOd continue to give you wisdom to bless us Dona Nanda Bezerra.
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