At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:1-4
Too often I run into this idea in my corner of social media of women being better than men - of mothers being more important than fathers. I’ve seen a variety of memes this weekend specifically of a picture of a beautiful dinner for mothers on Mother’s Day and a frozen dinner for fathers on Father’s Day. We laugh, say that it is true, and then move on. A harmless post to some, but I am beginning to see it as fuel to the fire, widening the divide between man and woman. Of course, that is all we do in our sinful nature is further separate ourselves and point fingers.
I find it challenging to hold to biblical womanhood as the fiery darts of the devil are shooting past me. I scroll through my phone and hear, in almost every post, “Did God really say….” Over and over and over again. Truths twisted into lies.
Before God, though, these lies cannot stand. As his children, we can come before him in our self-righteous debates and thoughts and ask, “Who is the greatest? Tell me that the way I argued and twisted your words is true.” And God has already answered in Jesus’ simple reply in Mark 18:3-4, “‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”
We must humble ourselves before God as children.
Humbling Ourselves Before God
As a teacher, I often hear students say, “I don’t know how to do that.” Their tone and body language imply that they want me to do it for them. As humans, we gradually teach our children to be independent from their parents because we know we won’t always be there to feed them, dress them, or care for them. They must learn to take care of themselves.
As a Christian, though, we are to do the opposite of our sinful nature and grow by depending more and more on God. We are to stay in the child like mindset with Him and always cry out to Him for help.
There is no shame in asking, “Lord, how do I be a dad? I don’t know how to lead my family. Help me - help me to become a good dad.” He won’t turn us away when we turn to Him and ask, “Lord, what does it mean to be a woman? I don’t know how to be a woman. Help me - help me to accept your design.” When these questions and pleas for help are heard by God, we are standing before Him just as the child in Mark 18 is standing before Jesus. God is happy when we obey his command and look to him for help just as a child would.
When we look to our Heavenly Father, He shows us that He is our ultimate helper. He is the one who provides every single need for us. Since He provides for our needs, He also provides other people for us to rely on and walk beside in our Christian walk.
Respecting Each Other
A woman is never to put her whole trust and dependence upon a man. Likewise, a man is never to put his whole trust and dependence upon a woman.
Our whole trust and dependence is given to God before anyone else and from there we can trust that who He has placed in our lives is someone we can cautiously depend upon. Cautiously because men and women, no matter how long they have known the Lord, are sinners and even when we know that they are sinners it is too easy to view them as little gods. We must be on guard for leaning too far in one direction or the other.
Somewhere in the middle is respect, and I think that is a good place to land.
When I respect another’s writing then I find myself not wanting to be like them or better than them but I see the areas I need to work on and the places I need to grow. They challenge me and inspire me. I can celebrate their success without becoming envious. I am simply willing to learn from them.
Maybe we, as women, could approach Father’s Day with this attitude - with respect. I could write a whole other post on the lack of respect modern day men receive and the effect it is having on their mental health. I’m sure most of us do respect them, but our society is wanting to destroy the family. The little memes we laugh at and may think of as harmless are spreading lies that we wouldn’t practice in our homes.
Fathers and mothers are precious blessings. Men and women are images of God. Neither are the greatest nor the least. We rule and work side by side.
How can we honor and respect each other in our perverse and twisted generation? How can we share the beauty of God’s design? May we all seek and depend upon God for the answers.
Thank you for reading The Tea Room. I hope you enjoyed todays post. If you did, then please share with a friend.
I have plans for two upcoming posts. One, hopefully, will be posted later this week on the wonderful book I just read The Enchanted April. The one next week will be about National Scoliosis Awareness Day. Stay tuned and subscribe so you can get these post sent straight to your email.
Thank you for being here! May your tea be warm!
I love seeing your tender heart open up and pour out God’s words. 😊
We are equal as brothers and sisters. Humility is something I need more of. Definitely need to pray for more. Thank you for this post, it is wonderful!