Lord, teach my children perseverance in all they do, and help them especially to run with perseverance the race marked out for them. (Hebrews 12:1)
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Let Me Be A Woman by Elisabeth Elliot
Chapter 18: The Soul is Feminine
Elisabeth begins this chapter with a quote from Psalm 144:12: May our daughters be like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace. Pillars uphold and support...Meekness is the adjective she uses to describe a woman's place. The world views meekness as timid, self-abnegating, colorless. To be meek is to have a sane and proper estimate of one's place in the scheme of things. The fact that we have a "place", shows that we are recognized by God which is a comforting thought.
As with a pillar that is cut and shaped to fit into a particular place, so we are cut to a certain size and shape to fulfill a certain function. It is a woman's offering, not a man's, that we have to give.
She again uses Mary, the mother of Jesus, as an example of self-giving and submission. How many of us respond to difficult circumstances or requirements by God with "Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according to Thy Word" ? Unfortunately, probably not most, myself included. "Be it unto me" ought to be the response of every man or woman to that will (God's will), and it is in this sense that the soul and the Church have been seen throughout Christian history as female before God, [NOT to be confused with various cults that believe that God IS female...] for it is the nature of the woman to submit.
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