Back in my college days and early 20’s I was just as “I can
do anything a man can do” as the next gal.
(In fact, with being a Ministry Major in college, men outnumbered me
tremendously and I took great pride in excelling beyond them academically.)
I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the Word since then studying
gender differences along with our biblically
defined roles and I’ve come to one major conclusion: I can’t do everything a man can do and I don’t want to.
Men have a high calling and that’s a lot of pressure. They were created to give; to serve; to
protect; to lead.
Now don’t get me wrong here, women aren’t meant to be
yielding airheads that have no value and lack the ability to be
self-sufficient. But we’ve somehow
managed to make everything about us and the poor guys can’t win for losing.
If a man tries to do something for us, we feel the need to
“prove” that we can do it for ourselves. But once we’ve nagged and exasperated guys
to the point of them no longer trying or desiring to do nice things for us, we
complain about how they not very gentlemen-like. Ladies, we can’t have it both ways.
At the previous church that I worked at, I had a super
precious co-worker, and bless his heart, his momma raised him right. But as I said before, at that point in my
life, I felt the need to prove myself and wouldn’t let the poor man do a single
thing that I could do for myself. To be
honest, there were even times that I did parts of his job before he had time to
just so I could “out work” him.
Well, one day this co-worker and I were heading back into
the office (which required a keyless card entry) and we both rushed toward the
door to open it. Fed up with my
belligerence, he steps between me and the door, looks me in the eye and says
“Wesley, let me serve you in this way.”
That was a game changer for me. He wasn’t looking for ways to lord over me or
exert his authority. He was trying to serve me.
Ladies, we have nothing to prove here. Men weren’t intended
to be our competition; they were meant to be our companions.
