Ordinary Yeses with Extraordinary Results
I recently developed a five-session seminar for women based upon my book, Gentleness: It’s Not What You Think. As I pondered what type of material I was going to include, I began to think about how living a lifestyle of gentleness is something God has asked us to do, therefore, being a gentle person is part of being a person with godly character. My mind began to form an image of what a godly woman looks like, and I began to type. No sooner did I type out how I imagined a godly woman to look on a daily grind day, and I came to a shocking realization…my picture of a woman with godly character wasn’t rooted in the biblical definition at all but was rather a reflection of my own insecurities and perceived flaws.
My mind went into hyper drive, as it sometimes does, and I shot out a poll, asking various women for their description of what a godly woman looked like. Sure enough, I wasn’t alone. Then I got upset, maybe even a little angry. So many of us are creating this abstract, concept-based perfect woman who is everything we are not in our heads and labelling it “The Godly Woman”.
The problem with that is, how can we have confidence in being a godly woman if our perception is rooted in our insecurities and perceived flaws and not biblical truth? Our perspective needs to shift off of us and onto His Truth! His Truth does not change, but my insecurities can multiply, shift, and spider web in all kinds of different directions. Rooting my perception of myself based upon myself is totally unstable and makes it impossible for me to have a sense of being a godly woman. But this is so tricky, isn’t it? It’s so so easy to say all the “right things” about what a godly woman should look like and fail to realize each and every trait we speak is really just cloaking a hidden insecurity.
As my mind kept going into hyper drive, I knew I had just discovered the direction I wanted to take for this seminar. Why not take real women, historical women, contemporary women, whose lives had proven evidence of an impact for God, and use them as inspiration for what a godly woman really looks like? Not an abstract concept that no one can actually attain but a real person.
As I searched for the ladies, and there were LOTS to choose from, I found myself moved to tears and felt a burn in my heart. I read through stories of women who went into difficult circumstances and showed concrete acts of kindness, such as handing out blankets and food, and saw how it changed lives, cultures, and countries. I saw other women who poured love, faith, and exemplified a real relationship with Jesus to their children; their children then went on to impact the globe for years to come…even posthumously. I saw other women choosing to forgive, even when it was hard, and that choice, that act of love, transformed countless and wound up impacting multiple countries.
How inspiring! These were women, most were married and had children, but not all, real women who made simple choices over time in their lives…kindness, forgiveness, faith, and loving the Lord all the way, and through these ordinary choices their lives had an extraordinary impact. These were ordinary women, just like me, flawed, imperfect, who chose to say, “Yes,” to God one decision at a time. Those everyday yeses added up to an impact that I’m sure they never dreamed of at the time. But that’s how amazing God is! He takes our ordinary and makes it extraordinary!
As we go about our days, so many things seem ordinary and boring. We can become numb to what seem like trite decisions. Yet each decision we make, each ordinary “yes” we make to God, opens up endless possibilities for Him to do something extraordinary. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see what God will do with our yeses.