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If you attended the Finding a Mate - Forging a Love Conference, you may recall from the Friday night session on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, I shared a quote from John Ensor in his excellent book “Doing things right in matters of the Heart”, on “America’s conventional wisdom” with regard to the genders:

“Where gender differences are acknowledged, they are far from appreciated. Instead they are considered remnants of patriarchy that by nature are unjust and oppressive. All differences are considered imbalances, and imbalances must be corrected and made equal. Equal makes things fair. To be fair, masculinity and femininity must be deconstructed. A new androgyny must be created and then imposed. I can hardly wait.” p. 72

We continue to see this played out on the front pages of our nations news.  You may have been disgusted by the recent headline about the California first graders subjected to a lesbian wedding “field trip”.

Today, I read this quote in the third installment of a 3-part series by Albert Mohler:

Civilizations are built on careful and necessary distinctions.  As an institution, marriage has been defined throughout history as a heterosexual union.  Marriage is so central to our civilization that its related words have become equally essential.  Words like “husband” and “wife” have been necessary to understanding our stories, our laws, our families, our social arrangements, and our aspirations.  Transform marriage into a homosexual institution, and the vocabulary no longer works.

The loss of distinction is nothing to celebrate.  The blindness of depravity in our culture keeps those who defend the unnatural explanation of sexuality and personhood from seeing the beauty and truth of gender distinction.

How ironic that so much being heralded under the banner of “diversity” and “tolerance” is actually serving to deconstruct the most basic form of natural tolerance - tolerating distinctions between men and women.

Will you pray for us and with us as we move forward with the vision to be a voice of uncompromising Biblical reason and proclamation of God’s “very good” design?

If you would be willing to partner with us in spreading the message and expanding the reach of the Finding a Mate - Forging a Love Conference - we’d love to hear from you!

We’re interested to see who would be willing to help coordinate and host Finding/Forging Conferences in a city near you…

Contact us. And leave a comment and share your thoughts and reaction here.

For the fullest expression of God’s glory and image in all the earth,

Adam

It looks like the gals over at Girltalk are starting a series on the Proverbs 31 Woman.  My wife offers some commentary on their first post that I know will encourage all the ladies in the house!

Keep in mind, my wife is the mother of three children, the season she is in may be ahead of where you are, but now is the time, not when you’re married, not when God grants children, now - to be preparing and learning all you can about being a godly wife and mother, if marriage and motherhood are a “desire of your heart.”

Here’s Erin’s thoughts:  (thanks Sweetie!)

I’ve often thought, “What woman could ever live up to the Proverbs 31 woman?!” Like the post says… she apparently never sleeps, helps the poor, brings in income, dresses her children in fine clothes, she dresses like royalty (and, therefore, must look like royalty), she sows… everything, she makes her own wool… the list goes on. Okay, first of all… dresses like royalty? Lately, the only time I even think about putting makeup on is when we have somewhere to go. And no, the store and even Target don’t count as “somewhere to go”. And if I’m not going anywhere… comfy crop yoga pants… all day. You know the ones! And the only reason I roll out of bed at 6:15am is because Noelle cries for her morning bottle. Not to mention every other thing Proverbs 31 (that’s her name) accomplishes in a 24 hour day.

But, as the girls say in the post:

“The Proverbs 31 woman is not meant to discourage us, but to inspire and encourage us. God desires to make us more like this godly woman. Just as he gives us grace to fulfill all of His commands, so He has provided power to help us resemble this lovely portrait.”

I want my children to “rise up and call me blessed”! I want my husband to “praise me saying, ‘You surpass them all!’ ” I pray for my “words to be wise”, and for “kindness to rule when I give instruction”.  Hey, how hard can those things be?  Seek the Lord, read His word and “Whatever is in your heart determines what you say” (Luke 6:45b)

I thougt this was a great post.  A great reminder. I do feel inspired… maybe a little more tired too, but inspired and encouraged non the less.

Let us know what you think - go check out the post and then come back here and leave a comment.  Have you ever felt “discouraged” by the Proverbs 31 woman?  How does our culture define virtuous womanhood today?  What do you think?

For all our RS female alumni and friends, here’s a great website to check out with “conversations on biblical womanhood and other fun stuff“, it’s called girltalk.

It’s one of my wife, Erin’s, favorites, so I asked her a couple questions about it:

A: Why do you like the girltalk blog?

E:  I like girltalk because it not only addresses married women with children, but they also include single women and married women without children.  The encouragement and help they offer also gives great lessons and preparation for younger women as they look ahead down their own road towards possible marriage and child rearing.  It’s always supported by scripture and sound doctrine.

A: What have you gained from it?

E:  I often learn something new and many times feel rebuke to be better - to strive to be more of what Christ wants me to be.  Always learning, always growing.  For example:  a recent post called “Fashion Advice from John Clavin” reaches girls from 10 to 100.  They also have a section for CJ Mahaney which allows not only perspective, but teaching from a godly man.

Thanks, Sweetie!

AJ