After riding the tidal wave of the feminist movement of the early 70’s, I began to wonder what value does God really put on women. Regardless of the culture or time, men and women have always had different positions. Were the feminists right, that men and women should be the same? Was traditional America right in the 50’s, a woman’s place is in the home? Or were some of the Middle East cultures right, that women are property?
Even though men in a male-dominated culture wrote the Bible, I believe God’s inspiration reveals His heart for women in those pages.

Women were created second, not second-class. From the very beginning, God put His mark on us! He said that He made men and women to be like Him, not in the way we look, but in His character. He gave us the same moral attributes that He has. He put the same potential to express God’s character to women that He did to men. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them…. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. (Genesis 1:27, 2:22) Just as a father gives his precious daughter to her husband in a wedding ceremony, God gave the woman to the man as a special, precious gift.

Men need help! This is a well-known fact to all women but it can be proved Biblically. In Genesis 2:18, God says It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. This verse proves that men need help! It doesn’t say that women need help. God puts a high value on females as we help the male species to function in this world. As wives, we present a different view of life to our husbands. We give them a sense of relationship and community. We fill in their gaps!

The Future is in our hands! God created women to bear the children of the world and to have the primary role in nurturing them. As the famous line goes “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” In our role as mothers of the next generation, we have an incredible opportunity to impact not only the direction of individual lives of our children but also of a whole culture. Even in the “least progressive” of all cultures, women have the role of influencing the next generation because of the amount of time they spend with their children. As a child growing up, my mother had such a positive impact in my life in many ways. One of her most significant dogmas was the prohibition of the phrase “I can’t.” We were not allowed to say those words together at all. Consequently, we were brought to believe we could do anything. Never underestimate the impact of a mother on the life of a child. Can there be any more important role in life?

Bottom line: Whom do you believe?We can believe those who say our worth comes from our position or how much money we make. We can believe those who say it comes from how our kids turn out. We can believe those who say that it comes from how we look or how people respond to us. Or we can believe God! We can believe that we are valuable because of who He made us to be!

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