1991 March/April issue Part 2

Women: The Road Ahead

That was the theme of Time's special issue last fall. There were pictures of women with babies in prison, an inconsolable “crack” baby with a tangle of tubes connected to machines, crying his little heart out, a mother charged with a felony: delivery of drugs to her newborn child, women in politics “sharing real rather than cosmetic power,” a veiled Muslim woman, ten tough-minded women who “create individual rules for success,” e.g. a police chief, a bishop, a rock climber, a baseball club owner, a rap artist, a fashion tycoon, an Indian chief and others (not much femininity showed in their pictures). There were single mothers, lesbian mothers, divorced mothers, working (outside the home) mothers. There was a twelve-year-old who fixes supper for her sisters when Mom works late and there was a man who is a house husband. But there was not one picture of a father and mother and their children. Not one.

“A jockstrap was a parting gift when Marion Howington retired last year from the once all-male post of senior v.p. at J. Walter Thompson... For Howington, a striking 60, who began climbing the ad agency’s ladder in Chicago in 1967, the key to success was to ‘be aggressive’ and ‘think like a man.’... ‘There’s not a woman anywhere who made it in business who is not tough, self-centered, and enormously aggressive.’”

Readers occasionally ask me why I include horrifying stuff in the newsletter. Well, to precipitate prayer and to remind us that we do not engage in a war of mere flesh and blood. As Ephesians 6 says, “We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the headquarters of evil... Take your stand then with truth as your belt, righteousness as your breastplate, the gospel of peace firmly on your feet, salvation as your helmet and in your hand the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.”

There was at least one bright note in Time's special issue. Sixty-six percent of women aged 18-24 answered yes to the question, “if you had the opportunity, would you be interested in staying at home and raising children?” They are beginning to see that corporate world is no day at the beach. There was encouragement also in a letter to Ann Landers from a former executive: “It suddenly dawned on me that I had my priorities mixed up and my children deserve better. I had to admit getting fulfillment from my career was a pipe dream. It may elude me in motherhood as well, but I now know what really matters. After nine years of paying someone to raise my children, I was forced to admit my family is more important to me than anything else. I wished I had known this when my first child was born. I am now thirty-six years old and happy to say we are expecting our third child... this means cutting down on vacations, and our entertaining will be reduced down to popcorn and video parties with a few old friends... ‘No success in life can compensate for failure at home.’”

I had a letter from one who made it her goal to be the godly woman of Titus 2:3-5. As usual, when one determines to obey the Lord “the enemy was there causing me to feel like my whole world is on a roller coaster, that my family was not important, that I am worthless, lazy, because I am a homemaker. I was so tired sometimes I could barely get meals on the table. I heard remark like, ‘Oh, you aren't working at all? How do you manage to live on one income? It’s hard on your husband! What do you do all day? You must be bored!” “As my husband and I listened to your programme we reaffirmed the goals we had set and committed them to the Lord once more... pray for me to be strong and of good courage and to remain faithful, and attitude of submission, a true handmaid of the Lord.”

Women need to be prayed for. They need all the encouragement they can get. Sadly, it is not always forthcoming from Christians. I saw a lovely girl in the market the other say with the sweetest of sweet baby girls in her grocery cart. I asked about the baby- five months old, her only child so far. “Are you able to stay home to care for her?” “Oh yes! Oh, I can’t even imagine putting her in day care!” I gave her my blessings. Perhaps even a brief word from a stranger can make a difference to a young mother.

Prayer lays hold of God’s plan and becomes the link between His will and it’s accomplishment on earth. Things happen which would not happen without prayer. Let’s not forget that. Amazing things happen, and we are given the privilege of being the channels of the Holy Spirit’s prayer. As we pray against abortion and pornography and homosexuality and divorce and drugs and for the strengthening of homes and families, we often feel helpless and hopeless until we remember, “We do not know how to pray  worthily as sons of God, but His Spirit within us is actually praying for us in those agonizing  longings which never find words.”