I found this to
be a great resource and wanted to share it with you. Life is full of
distractions and it’s easy to lose sight of what really matters. May God
use this list to bless you as you grow into the woman God designed you to be!
1.
That
all of your life—in whatever calling—be devoted to the glory of God.
2.
That
the promises of Christ be trusted so fully that peace and joy
and strength fill your soul to overflowing.
3.
That
this fullness of God overflow in daily acts of love so that
people might see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in heaven.
4.
That
you be women of the Book, who love and study and obey the Bible in
every area of its teaching. That meditation on Biblical truth be the source of
hope and faith. And that you continue to grow in understanding through all the
chapters of your life, never thinking that study and growth are only for
others.
5.
That
you be women of prayer, so that the Word of God would open to you;
and the power of faith and holiness would descend upon you; and your spiritual
influence would increase at home and at church and in the world.
6.
That
you be women who have a deep grasp of the sovereign grace of
God undergirding all these spiritual processes, that you be deep thinkers about
the doctrines of grace, and even deeper lovers and believers of these things.
7.
That
you be totally committed to ministry, whatever your specific role,
that you not fritter your time away on soaps or ladies magazines or aimless
hobbies, any more than men should fritter theirs away on excessive sports or
aimless diddling in the garage. That you redeem the time for Christ and his
Kingdom.
8.
That,
if you are single, you exploit your singleness to the full in devotion
to Christ and not be paralyzed by the desire to be married.
9.
That,
if you are married, you creatively and intelligently and sincerelysupport
the leadership of your husband as deeply as obedience to Christ will
allow; that you encourage him in his God-appointed role as head; that you
influence him spiritually primarily through your fearless tranquility and
holiness and prayer.
10. That, if you have children, you accept
responsibility with your husband (or alone if necessary) to raise up
children who hope in the triumph of God, sharing with him the teaching and
discipline of the children, and giving to the children that special nurturing
touch and care that you are uniquely fitted to give.
11. That you not assume that secular
employment is a greater challenge or a better use of your life than
the countless opportunities of service and witness in the home the
neighborhood, the community, the church, and the world. That you not only pose the
question: Career vs. full time mom? But that you ask as seriously: Full time
career vs. freedom for ministry? That you ask: Which would be greater for the
Kingdom— to be in the employ of someone telling you what to do to make his
business prosper, or to be God's free agent dreaming your own dream about how
your time and your home and your creativity could make God's business
prosper? And that in all this you make your choices not on the basis of secular
trends or yuppie lifestyle expectations, but on the basis of what will
strengthen the family and advance the cause of Christ.
12. That you step back and (with your husband,
if you are married) plan the various forms of your life's ministry in
chapters. Chapters are divided by various things—age, strength, singleness,
marriage, employment choices, children at home, children in college,
grandchildren, retirement, etc. No chapter has all the joys. Finite life is a
series of tradeoffs. Finding God's will, and living for the glory of Christ to
the full in every chapter is what makes it a success, not whether it reads like
somebody else's chapter or whether it has in it what chapter five will have.
13. That you develop a wartime
mentality and lifestyle; that you never forget that life is short, that
billions of people hang in the balance of heaven and hell every day, that the
love of money is spiritual suicide, that the goals of upward mobility (nicer
clothes, cars, houses, vacations, food, hobbies) are a poor and dangerous
substitute for the goals of living for Christ with all your might, and
maximizing your joy in ministry to people's needs.
14. That in all your relationships with men
you seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in applying the Biblical vision of
manhood and womanhood; that you develop a style and demeanor that does justice
to the unique role God has given to man to feel responsible for gracious
leadership in relation to women—a leadership which involves elements of
protection and care and initiative. That you think creatively and with cultural
sensitivity (just as he must do) in shaping the style and setting the tone of
your interaction with men.
15. That you see Biblical guidelines for what
is appropriate and inappropriate for men and women in relation to each other
not as arbitrary constraints on freedom but as wise and gracious
prescriptions for how to discover the true freedom of God's ideal of
complementarity. That you not measure your potential by the few roles
withheld but by the countless roles offered. That you turn off the TV and Radio
and think about...
The awesome
significance of motherhood
Complementing a
man's life as his wife
Ministries to the
handicapped:
- hearing impaired
- blind
- lame
- mentally disabled
Ministries to the
sick:
- nursing
- physician
- hospice care—cancer, AIDS, etc.
- community health
Ministries to the
socially estranged:
- emotionally impaired
- recovering alcoholics
- recovering drug users
- escaping prostitutes
- abused children, women
- runaways, problem children
- orphans
Prison
ministries:
- women's prisons!
- families of prisoners
- rehabilitation to society
Ministries to
youth:
- teaching
- sponsoring
- open houses and recreation
- outings and trips
- counseling
- academic assistance
Sports
ministries:
- neighborhood teams
- church teams
Therapeutic
counseling:
- independent
- church based
- institutional
Audio visual
ministries:
- composition
- design
- production
- distribution
Writing
ministries:
- free lance
- curriculum development
- fiction
- non-fiction
- editing
- institutional communications
- journalistic skills for
publications
Teaching
ministries:
- Sunday school: children, youth,
students, women
- grade school
- high school
- college
Music ministries:
- composition
- training
- performance
- voice
- choir
- instrumentalist
Evangelistic
ministries:
- personal witnessing
- Inter Varsity
- Campus Crusade
- Navigators
- Home Bible Studies
- outreach to children
- Visitation teams
- Counseling at meetings
- Billy Graham phone bank
Radio and TV
ministries:
- technical assistance
- writing
- announcing
- producing
Theater and drama
ministries:
- acting
- directing
- writing
- scheduling
Social
ministries:
- literacy
- pro-life
- pro-decency
- housing
- safety
- beautification
Pastoral care
assistance:
- visitation
- newcomer welcoming and
assistance
- hospitality
- food and clothing and
transportation
Prayer
ministries:
- praying!!!
- mobilizing for major Concerts of
Prayer
- helping with small groups of
prayer
- coordinating prayer chains
- promoting prayer days and weeks
and vigils
Missions:
- all of the above across cultures
Support
ministries:
- countless jobs that undergird
major ministries
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