For the last few weeks, my parents and I have been hosting a group at our home and studying through the book 'Guardian Angel' by Skip Moen. Put very simply, it is about the role that women have to play as God set it up originally in Genesis. (As well as how "the fall" affected that and what things look like now that Jesus has come to redeem creation) There have arisen a lot of what he calls "Christian myths" that we generally accept as true that actually have no Biblical base whatsoever and have tainted our view on what the relationship between a man and a woman should look like. The author takes the words of Genesis, analyzes them as it would have been originally written and understood in Hebrew, and explains not just the literal translations but the heart and meaning of the creation story and what that means for us as humans, particularly in the context of marriage.
For me, I am pointedly aware of how single I am. It's a reality that I have had for quite a long time and I'm OK with that, but that does make it interesting going through a book all about what it looks like to be married. Especially in a group full of married couples. They have all been raving about how much this book has been helping their marriages, so I feel like it is probably a great foundation for me to have even before I have someone in my life to apply it with. The funny thing is, it all makes a lot of sense. Very little of what the book talks about has been new ideas for me and none of it has clashed with my previous understandings. Things like who I am made to be as a woman, who men are made to be, and how we are both designed to relate to each other and to God...it all rings true. These people who have been married longer than I have been alive keep lamenting that they didn't know this stuff decades ago, so I know I had better pay attention and get it now BEFORE I go into a relationship. It is definitely not a light read, and it does clash with some more old school ideas around the marriage dynamic, but I have been realizing how blessed I am to already have been aligned with God's truth. Every passage of scripture that we analyze sheds more and more light on what God has truly put into place, and I am so amazed to find that that is what He has already been sowing in me. I have been on a long journey of healing and self-discovery over the last few years (ok, maybe the last bunch of years) and my self-identity has shifted a lot. I used to struggle intensely with self hatred, and still have that as a stumbling block from time to time, but I find that that has been systematically replaced by the Holy Spirit. After years of God relentlessly speaking life over me and pouring His love out over me, I can say I truly believe that He cherishes me and has created me to be a powerful woman of God. I was not designed to be a wussy, defenseless girl waiting for a man to come and give me purpose in life. My purpose is found in God alone, and when I get married it will be partner alongside a man of God so that we can pursue His heart together. It has taken me years to even believe that I will get married someday. Who knows? I might not. But I no longer think that that has anything to do with my own self worth or ability to be loved. I am learning a lot in this book study, but more importantly it has been confirming that God has been speaking a true identity over me and that He is the plumb line in my life. I can learn and grow in anything as long as I'm pointed in the right direction - the lover of my soul, Yeshuah my Messiah. P.S. Everybody should read this book! =) He is a Hebrew scholar, so he really goes into the language and the culture, which I feel like brings Genesis into a much clearer light. Here is his website: http://skipmoen.com/products/guardian-angel/ |
ErikaJeremiah 29:11 Archives
March 2023
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