Multiple times in the past five weeks I’ve either accidentally or intentionally heard comments on the most recent weekend teaching series (SHAPE):
“I’ll be back in 6 weeks when the man series is over.”
“I don’t have a man in my life, so I don’t need to hear this again.”
“I’ll be glad when they get back to stuff that applies to all of us”
On the surface, I can understand some of those thoughts, but as I was processing Scott’s teaching from this weekend, I couldn’t help but think what a loss we women suffer if we don’t push our understanding deeper. We get e-mails (a lot actually) that indicate women and children are deeply impacted by the teaching, but lest we all get lazy about listening for what God wants to tell us, here’s my list of ten reasons every minute of SHAPE applied to me (and to all us girls!):
1. We are the image of God TOGETHER. Whether married, single, mother, divorced, teenager, or college student, the life of the men in the body of Christ impacts the life of the women, and vice versa. We have to want the most for each other. Genesis 1:27
2. Rethinking. There’s never been a time when we more needed to rethink how we view ourselves, our relationships, our families, and our roles as women created in God’s image.
3. Submit. I like that word more when I’m reminded that I yield any power I might exercise to the authority of a Heavenly Father, who gave His best for me. Galatians 2:20
4. Coming to terms with PERISH. “Feed what you want to grow and starve what you want to kill.” My own wants and desires are alive and well and constantly threaten what is best for my marriage and my family. Anyone else?
5. Assess, assess, assess. This one hit the hardest. It’s the “honest” assessment that threw me for a loop. An honest assessment usually proves I’m not entirely the victim, I have a LOT of work to do with Jesus, and continually need to be shown grace.
I hope you found as much to chew on in the past five weeks as I did. I’ll be working through this stuff for a long time.
Bring on the next
Karen Berge is the Women's Pastor at Flatirons Community Church.
I know it was a men's series but... I learned so much. I learned how to be a helpmate to my husband.
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