You’ve heard it before: when technology works, it’s priceless. I now add: when technology doesn’t work, it’s pricey! After almost two weeks of computer glitches, then a hefty check to the tech guru, I’m back in the world of computer communication. Adding to the long delay in writing for My Monday Moments was a week in Dallas to reconnect with Global Aid Network colleagues, recovery from said journey (such recuperation seems to be taking longer these days 😏, and my husband’s current battle with an elusive virus which has totally grounded him with complete exhaustion. Other than these minutiae, life goes forward with joy.

Because of my current emphasis on The Perennial Woman, I especially wanted to write on March 8^th, International Women’s Day. This could be a thorny emphasis for some. I am aware that one extreme wing of Christian thought decries this commemoration, believing “…the woman’s rights movement has decimated God’s institution of marriage and the family,” and “International Women’s Day should not be a time for us to rejoice, but rather a time for us to mourn for our nation and our culture…”*

But as I have studied scripture, listened to the wise counsel of men and women I respect and trust, and looked deeply into the state of women around the world (in every society and culture, in every group including religious groups, and sadly in Christian groups), I am saddened only that it was the secular women’s rights world that emphasized these needs before the Christian voice was heard.

I am justifiably proud of our two grandsons: one earning his living by hard work and the other completing his undergraduate university degree (equally hard work!). Both these young men display their God-given skills with intensity and honor. I also shout hurrah that both are at home in the kitchen! Skills and attitudes learned from their dads as well as their moms.

Two granddaughters complete the “grand” generation for us. One is completing her first year of university, the other will enter tenth grade this coming fall. These two I fervently pray will follow the path of hundreds of Christian women before them as leaders in their homes, schools, communities, churches and the world:

Rosa Parks dared to ride a bus.

Antoinette Blackwell began preaching in her Congregational church at the age of nine!

Catherine Booth, along with her husband, trained evangelists throughout England, ultimately founding The Salvation Army.

Lilias Trotter not only gave up her wealthy lifestyle to minister to Muslims in Algeria, but used her artistic talent to “capture impressions of the people and places she visited.”

Jennifer Wiseman was a senior project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope.

Flannery O’Connor’s short stories are renowned.

Susannah Wesley bore 19 children (at her death, only eight children were still alive), raising them with intense study on scripture; her children, including her daughters, “learned Latin and Greek and were well tutored in the classical studies.”

Although many know her primarily through her husband, Bill, Vonette Bright took no back seat in Campus Crusade for Christ leadership. She was quick to advise Bill both when he effectively ministered as well as when she thought him “out of line”😊; Bill credited her for much of the ministry’s success.

Carolyn Custis James writes provocatively with courage about women in the Bible and women’s roles today.

Dr. Christena Cleveland is an outspoken social psychologist, public theologian, author and Associate Professor at Duke University.

Dr. Mimi Haddad leads a worldwide organization of Christian men and women who believe that the Bible, properly interpreted, teaches the fundamental equality of women and men.

Joanna, Esther, Naomi, Demaris, Ruth, Jael, Abigail, Claudia, Deborah, Junia and scores more fill the pages of scripture.

And the list goes, including hundreds of thousands of unnamed women who regularly follow God’s call in their individual and community lives. Women who walk miles over dusty roads to carry clean water so their children can survive. Women who cook nutritious meals for their families day after day. After day after day! Women who teach in the classrooms of elementary and secondary schools, universities and seminaries. Women in the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies. Single women. Married women. Girls. Teenagers. Women in their eighties and nineties.

Yes, my granddaughters, I do celebrate International Women’s Day.

 

*biblicalgenderroles.com  (I am unable to discover the name of the author of this site, but he identifies himself as Larry Solomon, stating that “The reason I do not use my real name is the same reason that Christ hid himself from Jews: “Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.” – John 8:59 (KJV)