Hello, ladies! I am back and it feels strange to be behind the keyboard again. In many ways, I haven’t really left. I have just been keeping my posts to Facebook and Instagram rather than a dedicated blog. After having multiple people comment on how I ought to start a blog, I began to wonder if maybe this was the Lord pointing me back to dumping my thoughts in a more focused manner.
As someone who has committed to many things in the past and then flopped on them, often times very publicly, I hesitated to try again for a while. I just wasn’t quite sure that I had the time to commit to it and I have been heavily convicted to make sure my yes is yes, and my no is no. I want to be a woman of my word that can be counted on to finish what she commits to. After consulting with my husband and weighing the various things that I have on my plate, I have decided that this might actually be a good outlet for me to use as it doesn’t require a ton of time. And since I am likely to voice my thoughts on IG and Facebook anyway, I might as well compile them in some organized fashion.
So here we are. Back to my blog. I am just beginning to firm up the direction I want this blog to go. Currently it is everything pertaining to Christian women; biblical womanhood (along with some theology), marriage, motherhood, homemaking, homeschooling, organization, cooking, cleaning tips, books, etc. Above all else, I want to inspire women along the line of Titus 2:4; to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husband. To bring honor and glory to the name of Christ by living holy lives that point their families and loved ones back to the cross. I don’t pretend to be an all knowing, wise older woman. I am only 32, after all. But the Lord has been kind in giving me a passion and a voice that seemingly overflows, admittedly too much at times. He places this burden so heavily on my heart to share what He has been teaching me.
I have tried in the past to stifle this desire in an attempt to fit into the mold of what I saw other Christian women doing. The Christian women that I know are quieter than I am. They don’t speak as loudly about the things the Lord is doing in their lives as I do, so I believed that this must mean that what I was doing was wrong. I began to believe that I should change my personality to better fit the picture I was seeing of the typical Christian woman. However the longer that I have studied the Christian women of years past and what scripture actually teaches, the more that I came to realize that this wasn’t actually the case.
There is nothing wrong with having a quieter demeanor; it is actually a gift in its own way. The longer that I walk with the Lord, the more that I am coming to learn that He has a purpose for giving each of us our specific personalities, along with our giftings. I was listening to a podcast a while back from Doug Wilson, and he said that knowing Christ actually makes us more like ourselves than before we are saved. What he meant by that was that God is the Creator of all things, including our personalities. The more we allow ourselves to be sanctified by the Spirit, the more we become like He intended us to be. The more He curates our specific personality to best glorify Himself. Sin is stripped away, layer by layer, to reveal who He specifically created us to be. God is the most incredible artist. His people are such a perfect picture of that. Each unique personality points to His magnificent creativity. That sweet, quiet sister will become even more gentle as she grows in sanctification. And though she may desire to be more bold, God will use her soft personality to shine His light in a place that requires her specific tender touch.
The ladies who are more like me, the ones that have so much to say that they feel like they might explode if they don’t get it out, their purpose is a little more obvious. He uses these personalities to proclaim His greatness loudly, to call people to repentance openly, and to bring about conviction on a larger scale. They are the bloggers and the teachers. They are the Sunday school leaders and the evangelists. God uses these women to help refine their sisters, as they challenge them to think through their actions and thought processes that they may better conform to the image of Christ.
Both types of women have such a special gift to offer to the Church, but both can easily fall into sin if they are not constantly yielding all that they are to Christ. The first can be too soft spoken, so afraid to rock the boat that they never proclaim the gospel to anyone. Thus they stay in their bubble of safety and don’t ever fully realize all that God intends for their lives. The second can fall into the other ditch, being so loud that the love of God is drowned out. They become the noisy gong that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 13. All law and no grace. Our personalities can point others to God, or they can point back to us and our flesh. We have to always be careful to pray for wisdom as we speak, and also when we choose to stay silent. Discernment on what is from our flesh and what is being prompted by the Spirit is extremely important to keep us from being too bold or too quiet, that we may walk in perfect unison with the Spirit.
I want to talk more at length about embracing our personalities in a biblical way in a later post, but really that was my long winded way of saying, welcome back to the blog! Clearly I have a lot to say. It will probably offend you at some point, but I pray that you will at least consider what I am choosing to put out there. It will always be prayerfully put together, and my hope is that it will bring about conviction in the best way. I pray that God will use my words to bless the women who find this space, and that we may continuously spur each other on to pursue holiness, in accordance to the calling God has individually placed on our lives. Please drop a comment and let me know how I can pray for you and don’t forget to follow me over on Instagram!
Blessings!
Brittany
gloryintheordinary.wordpress.com 