Politically-Incorrect Womanhood

It is a cozy day here at the Bowman cabin. 🙂  I’m sitting at my own dining room table working away on essays (thank God for wireless internet), smelling the wonderful scent of boiling butternut squash, and hearing the consistent “swish-swish” of foam insulation being installed under the cabin. I’m smiling as I remember the text message I received this morning from my husband who’s hard at work:  “I LOVE YOU, ASHLEY ELIZABETH BOWMAN!!!  I’m praying for you.”

I am blessed.

I think that perspective makes my home cozy, my heart warm (although for some reason my nose is still cold), and my life so peaceful.  Perspective has shaped my thoughts to find joy in boiling squash, baking pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting, and sitting at my unorganized table tutoring essay-writers.

I’m not working my dream job. I’m sitting at a computer all day talking to students about comma rules, the need for paragraphs in an essay, and the rules involved in capitalizing proper nouns.  It’s not ideal.  I’m not a famous writer, and for Pete’s sake, I’ve not written fiction since last winter or so!! 😦

However, as I walk through my day with my to-do list, I find that finishing up this list is way more fulfilling than I ever thought it’d be:

Clean shower

Sweep/mop bathroom floor

laundry – sort…. throw load in

Wash dishes/ microwave

Bible time

Pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies

Separate and freeze bulk cheeses

Cook squash

Squash “pumpkin” bread

move shelf

 

So, why is that??

Why is it that I find such joy in doing such mundane tasks?  Let’s talk about it.

Did you ever think about what your purpose is a woman or specifically, a wife?  ….. yes, sorry, guys.  I’m talking to the ladies right now.

Why was Eve created?  She was created to fulfill…. to complete…. her man, Adam.  Someone once told me this (or maybe I read it somewhere….) that the woman’s whole purpose was to complete mankind.  Of course, I’m not saying that women don’t have worth in and of themselves.  They sure do.  When He came to earth, Jesus revolutionized the contemporary view of women by living a life that showed women as equal in worth with men.  However, the original purpose for the creation of womenkind was to fulfill mankind.

So, that’s it.  When you are wholeheartedly seeking to advance your husband, to honor him, to serve him, and to help him succeed at what God has called him to, then you are fulfilling the purpose of your creation.

Genesis 2:15-24 says:

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman, ‘
for she was taken out of man.”

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Can you see that??  Can you see how after all that God has created and called “good”, He decided that one thing in His creation isn’t good, and that is that man is alone.  So, He created a woman—out of Adam’s own rib—and filled that need with something that would qualify as “a suitable helper” (vs.20).

What a purpose we women have been given!!  What an amazing job we have been instilled with!  What an amazing joy to fulfill that purpose wholeheartedly unto the Lord, in order to take that which was incomplete alone and make it complete and “good” in the eyes of the Lord!

So, what about you?  Are you fulfilling your God-designed purpose by completing your man?

Are you focusing on that, rejoicing in that, and finding your personal fulfillment in glorifying God in and through that responsibility?