No Compete Clause

This may be an unpopular post, but I’ve never been big on women’s lib. I’ve had other wars to fight like racial equality and social justice, fair housing and health care for all. I take a more Biblical approach to gender equality. Don’t get it twisted; I believe in monogamy and I’m against child marriages. I just think we’ve gone way overboard with the “women are equal to men” thing. Let me explain.

God made Adam and gave him dominion over the animals and the garden. He was doing a good job with those tasks, but the Lord saw that he was lonely and needed a companion. Saying, “It isn’t good for man to live alone”, God made Eve from Adam’s rib. We all understand that she didn’t come from his feet to be trampled on or his head to be over him. She was created from near his heart to be cherished, considered, protected, nurtured, and cared for. This is significant.

He was complete without her, before she arrived on the scene. Physically, he had everything under control in the garden. Now, her creation left him physically lacking something that she was designed to fulfill since she was his missing part. She was created to help him by doing the things he could NOT do, not to compete with him.

Since she was taken from near his heart, the place of emotions, we can assume that she was the one to bring sensitivity into the picture. He was physically able but emotionally lacking. He could do, but not feel. Eve would be the nurturer, the gentle touch. Where Adam was rough, she would be soft; where he was strong, she would be weak (as in flexible), not in a negative sense, but in a way that brought balance and tenderness.

When we as women compete with men and challenge their authority, we emasculate them. We don’t come off looking very feminine either. The roles get reversed and the lines between us get blurred. God had very specific responsibilities for us from the beginning of time. We were meant to compliment one another, not compete.

In God’s economy, balance is a necessary component. Day and night compliment each other; one yields work and productivity, the other rest and refreshing. The sea and sky do the same; one provides light, the other reflects it. All are necessary for life. So it is with us. We must find a way to work together and not compete, to fulfill our roles without being threatened because one can do more or something different than the other.

Let’s help our men be leaders by setting them up to succeed. Let’s nurture our boys to value the role of women in society and to honor our place in it. Let’s raise up girls to be women of worth who recognize their strengths and feel no pressure to abdicate those roles to take on duties that were never assigned to them. Let’s restore the God-ordained family so that we all thrive and prosper.