My Two Cents <3

There are a lot of words going around right now regarding backlash from a well known and oft-quoted pastor who dashed off a quick response to a provocative question and was apparently encouraged by a room full of men who thought it was funny. 

I wasn’t there. I have only read the articles and reports and normally I do not feel the need to add my voice in settings where many people are weighing in. 

But I owe a lot to a little lady who loves Jesus and who was my teacher when I was hungry, hungry and hungrier to really know this Man I have claimed to follow since my earliest memories. 

So I will leave the clever theological debates to those much smarter than I am and just openly thank you, Miss Beth for the following:

<3 Thank you for all the notebooks filled with scribbles and tears and coffee stained pages where I studied God’s Word and learned a lot because you put the time in to prepare a place where women could dig into Scripture with a little help from a friend. 

<3 Thank you for always proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord AND Savior and for being transparent about your own failures without making them the center of the story but instead always pointing to the Redemptive power and love of our God.

<3 Thank you for the way you taught the Word honestly, and always to the best of your knowledge making sure we knew the difference between His words and yours <3 ….so that the Holy Spirit could do His thing in us all. 

<3 Thank you for always teaching and stressing to us women who are married that our husbands are still the authority over our home and to keep our heads lower than theirs even when they pray over us. 

<3 Thank you that you made me laugh and cry with your stories and helped me understand that we all are wounded and broken and need Jesus and no matter how pulled together another woman may appear to be, she is just like me on the inside…in need of the love of Jesus to reach down into her hurts and wash away her pride and redefine her as His and not a product of her mistakes nor a poster child for her triumphs.

<3 Thank you for the reminder that I am saved once, but filled many times because I leak.

There is more.

Volumes and hours of growth and learning and fellowship with sisters in Christ shared.

But that’s enough for now.

Be thankful for mentors.

Both men and women of faith who have taught and shared and exhorted with integrity under the Lordship of Jesus Christ <3