Written by Valentina Tollick

06/02/2008
19:39

Well, i was reading through the Soul sista archived articles online today, and found this, which I really liked:

GIRL OF GOD: A FEMININE BEING
By Ali MacInnes

Genesis 2.25: The man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame.

I was thinking and praying about what it meant to be a feminine girl of God when I came across this passage. When we talk about our femininity and being a girl of God we need to know that his calling over us and his desire for us is to be free from shame. In the perfection of Eden we weren't ashamed of our bodies. God's ideal for us is that we wouldn't be ashamed of our womanly, girly, gorgeously feminine selves.

BEFORE GOD WE ARE FREE FROM SHAME
We are made in the Image of God"
Genesis 2.27-31 tells us that God made both male and female in His beautiful, glorious, perfect, wonderful image. We - men and women - together reflect God (albeit imperfectly).

" with a purpose to our lives
He gave both men and women the job of ruling the earth. We were given a joint and equal calling alongside Adam. God has a purpose for our lives that is equal but different to the men. He doesn't see us as just being on this planet to make it more beautiful - though we do that well. We must not fall into the trap of only believing that we exist to pick up men's socks or to lamely follow them around as they conquer the earth.

And God says we're very good
When God made us he said his creation was very good. God does not see us as being 'lesser beings' to our male counterparts. He isn't like a Dad who desired a son and therefore isn't too sure what to do with the daughter he ended up with. He created you and loves what he made. He isn't ashamed or embarrassed of us. He likes that he made us different from the men; he likes the way he has made us. God's desire for all his children is that we would be free from shame. We need to know that God looks at us and loves what he sees.

NOT TO BE ASHAMED OF OURSELVES
So often we can be ashamed of the perception of femininity; we hate what the world sees feminine as being - either bolshy and forceful or weak and feeble.

On the one hand we don't want to be tarred with the all to often ugly brush of feminism but deep down we also know there is more to us than knitting and kittens. Its too easy to think of femininity as being something to be ashamed of - we can see things like our emotions, our intuition, our compassion, our ability to engage and communicate, our desire to nurture, even our desire to be wives and mothers as things to be embarrassed of but not only are these things amazing but they are also only the tip of the iceberg.

We are so much more than that - we are loving, gentle, strong, kind, patient, encouraging, energetic, fun, funny, impulsive, passionate, thoughtful, aware, capable and beautiful. Read Proverbs 31 if you want to know more - it tells us that a woman can be a good business woman, she is wise, she is compassionate, she is creative, she is strong and dignified, she makes her man and family proud, she fears the Lord". How's all that for amazing?

We've believed the lies that the enemy has that we are lesser beings - that having our periods mean that we can't make decisions, that our intuition means we can't be practical, our compassion means we can't be rational. This is rubbish. God has made us strong and resourceful.

We mustn't be ashamed either of the fact that woman - more naturally than men - were born for community and to communicate. We find ways to seek out community and communicate - even if that does mean we get laughed at for going to the loo in pairs! Even in this aspect of us we reflect God: There is community in the trinity between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And God made us for his own pleasure, out of his own desire for fellowship. We see it illustrated in the Garden of Eden, where God had fellowship with Adam and Even and walked with them in the evening.

We need to begin to grasp how amazing it is to be a girl of God and let God show us that being created a woman is nothing to be ashamed of but it is something to be rejoiced in.

NOT TO BE ASHAMED BEFORE GUYS
God's ideal was that we would be comfortable about ourselves before men and vice versa - that we would be comfortable with our differences, and not just the biological and physical differences but the whole package (remember the passage we began with?). That was God's ideal, and initially Eve lived in that ideal but the fall shattered that. Now we constantly compare ourselves to men and want to be like them or feel self-conscious of the things that make us different.

When it comes to our bodies the media has robbed us of so much - in setting up ideals that none of us can ever live up to and we spend so much of our time feeling inferior. I know that sometimes I get so hurt when I go to the movies with my guy friends when they comment on how gorgeous the leading lady is. It makes me want to shrink back and hide. I can't help but take it personally and think that I could never live up to that and what chance do I have of ever getting a man when that's what they want.

And I know talking to other girls that this is a tough thing for lots of us. We can't bear the thought of being compared to a super-gorgeous woman and failing, so we either try our hardest to be the hottest thing out there, doing all we can to get a guys attention or we decide to pull out of the game in covering up our womanly bodies with huge clothes, or starving ourselves into a nothingness, trying to make ourselves invisible or unnoticeable.

And this leads me on nicely to talking about our bodies: We mustn't be ashamed of our womanly bodies - whether we're flat as a pancake or could give Jordan a run for her money, we are all beautifully feminine and we need to not only accept that but love and rejoice in that. We need to learn to look at our bodies and, like Creator God, say 'it is good'. I know for loads of us (myself included) that feels like an impossible dream but I do believe that our God of Restoration can do anything - even help us to like ourselves.

But to go back to the guys - we need to not believe the myth that we can never meet this amazing standard. Good and Godly men actually want to bless our femininity - all that that really means, not the illusion.

NOT TO BE ASHAMED BEFORE OTHER GIRLS
When sin entered the world so did comparison and jealousy. We began to notice our differences and want 'what she's having' so that we were no longer comfortable to be open and exposed like we were in Eden. We've learned to cover ourselves up and play ourselves down.

Too often as women we try and suppress who we are and all that God has created us to be because we don't want our fellow women to judge us or criticise us or to disown us. But we are not to make ourselves lesser to make our friends feel better. We are to be all that we can be before our God and serve him not reduce ourselves.

I love what one friend of mine had to say on the subject:
'A woman is at her most feminine when she is living out who she is, not what others expect of her, living up to her potential and not trying to 'prove' herself to others or put an act on. Instead she's being genuine and honest.'

I love that so much! That is a lot to aim for but with God's help we can begin to shine. I recently came across this amazing quote by Nelson Mandella, which I want to leave this on. Read it and ask God to speak to you about shining, about being all that you can be for him, about not holding back through shame or fear but standing up as a gorgeously feminine girl of God:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us" And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."