Five Messages Holding Women Back

Today I'm happy to host as a guest blogger Kat Armstrong, author of the recent book No More Holding Back, which I urge urge urge you to order.

Do you feel like your womanhood and calling to live fully conflict? I used to—because I believed five messages that denied the truth of who God says I am:

1. Women Can’t Be Trusted to Learn and Lead

I once asked a Sunday School teacher, “Can women go to seminary?” My question revealed I thought theological education was reserved for men only. After searching my heart, I’ve come to realize I didn’t think women could be trusted to lead because of Eve’s failures in the garden of Eden. Thank goodness, Jesus’s resurrection secured all women an epic Eden redo. He commissions women to learn and lead.

2. I Don’t Have a Lot to Offer

I often second-guess my ability to love God and others. Yet Jesus welcomes the offerings of the brokenhearted, troubled, weak, and confused, just as he welcomes the offerings of the happy, competent, and assured. In Him, we have more than enough.

3. My Greatest Joy Is Marriage and Highest Calling Is Motherhood

The greatest commandments given by Jesus include nothing about roles as wives or mothers. Rather, Jesus simply says to love God above all else and to love others as ourselves. Whether they're married, single, mothering, or childless, Jesus treasures and empowers women.

4. I Am Too Much to Handle

“A man told me I may repel godly suitors by going to seminary,” a young woman told me. Another confided her fear that an “activator” StrengthsFinder result meant she was unsubmissive. These lies and more leave women feeling rebellious and overbearing. But God made us to be strong leaders who mutually submit and devote ourselves to Jesus.

5. Leading Ladies Don’t Fit in Supporting Roles

God did create women to be helpers, but not how we may think. Women are helpers in the likeness of the Trinity—fighters, battle winners. Requiring women to fill subservient roles is to live according to the Fall. But Christian woman have been set free to live as warrior-helpers, bearing witness to the kingdom to come.

You can find Kat Armstrong on Twitter at @katarmstrong1 and learn more about her book on her web site at www.katarmstrong.com/book

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