Just As I Am

One of my favorite hymns is Just As I Am by Charlotte Elliott.  Here are two verses that I especially love.

Just as I am, Thy love unknown
Hath broken every barrier down;
Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, of that free love
The breadth, length, depth, and height to prove,
Here for a season, then above,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

One question that I hear rather frequently is "When are you going back to work?"
My response - "I am already working full time.  I am just a mom."

Now, I promise, I am not entering the debate about whether women should stay at home full time or not.  I have friends who are stay-at-home moms and friends who work outside of the home.  As I have blogged about in the past, it is simply mine and my Heroic Husband's personal opinion that the wife should be in the home.  But why does everyone seem to think that I need to go back to work outside of my little home?

Someone posted a blog a few weeks ago.  It posed the question, "Is being a stay-at-home mom enough?  Is just being at home with my children today satisfactory?"

This past week, Emma Watson stormed the U.N. with the HeforShe campaign, calling for "gender equality that brings together one half of humanity in support of the other of humanity, for the entirety of humanity."

I became curious about the history of the feminist movement, so I did some research.  Three of the key feminist leaders in the United States of America were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony.  According to one article, "Women's rights movements are primarily concerned with making the political, social, and economic status of women equal to that of men and with establishing legislative safeguards against discrimination on the basis of gender."

I am all for women not be discriminated against, simply because they are female.  I definitely support women being able to vote.  But, I do not want to be equal with a man.  I am a WOman.  I am weaker.  I am more emotional.  I have a different role.  This is intentional.  God designed women to be different than men.  The old saying, "opposites attract," is 100% true.  My Heroic Husband is the opposite of me.  We complement each other.

Genesis 2:18
Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a helper as his complement." 

Here are some factoids about the leading feminists:

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

• When she married Henry Stanton in 1840, they omitted the word "obey" from their marriage vows.
•  She was a leader in promoting women's rights, especially divorce and the right to vote.
•  "Along with numerous articles on the subject of women and religion, Cady Stanton published the Woman's Bible (1895, 1898), in which she voiced her belief in a secular state and urged women to recognize how religious orthodoxy and masculine theology obstructed their chances to achieve self-sovereignty."

Lucy Stone

• When she married Henry Blackwell, they also omitted any suggestion of wifely obedience.
• She protested marital law and refused to adopt her husband's last name. "A wife should no more take her husband's name than he should hers.  My name is my identity and must not be lost." 
• She was ex-communicated from her Congregationalist Church after she spoke on the inaccuracies of Greek and Latin translations that led to the Bible’s demeaning of women. 

 Susan B. Anthony

• She was arrested for voting illegally.  She was fined $100, but she never paid.
• "She cut her hair and wore the bloomer costume for a year before ridicule convinced her that this radical dress detracted from the other causes she supported." 
• She attacked prostitution in a speech, calling for equality in marriage, in the workplace, and at the ballot box to eliminate the need for women to go on the streets.

We are taught to idolize these women.  We are told to look up to them.  I am going to look up to God and His Word though.

Ephesians 5:22-23
Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body.


Ephesians 5:25-26
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. 

Mark 10:5-9
But Jesus told them, "He wrote this command for you because of the hardness of your hearts.  But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female.  For this reason a man will leave his father and mother [and be joined to his wife], and the two will become one flesh.  So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, man must not separate."

1 Corinthians 8:6
...yet for us there is one God, the Father.  All things are from Him, and we exist for Him.  And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ.  All things are through Him, and we exist through Him.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Romans 13:1-2
Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God.  So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves.

The feminist movement was not all bad.  I am very thankful that I have the right to vote.  I am glad that when I did work outside the home, I was paid the same as my associates.  But we must remember that God created women differently.  He formed woman out of man.  He placed man ahead of woman.  The man is supposed to love and lead his wife as Christ loves and leads His church, His bride.  Women are to love, honor, respect, obey, and support their husbands as she does Christ.

I may just be a stay-at-home wife and mother, but I happy and content.  I do not need to be a man.  I do not need humanity to tell me I am just as good as a man.  God designed me with a specific purpose - a woman, a wife, a mother.  There are an infinite amount of things that I am able to do that HH cannot.

HH is busy at work as I type this.  BC just woke up from his nap.  He is sitting in my lap and trying to help me type.  In a minute, I am going to cuddle with him, feed him, and play with him.  Although the world may think that I am unhappy in my little home, I assure you, I am joyous.  The breadth, length, depth, and height of my love for my  little family is all that I need.

Is just being a stay-at-home mom enough?  Yes... yes it is.

Just my sweet little family enjoying God's magnificent creation