This week we’re starting chapter 5 – Lies Women Believe about Priorities. If you missed a week or a handout, you can get all of them here.
Download the handout here –> Lies Women Believe About Priorities Chapter 5 Chart
This week in our study of Lies Women Believe, we’re moving away from three foundational lies women believe – Lies about God, Lies about Themselves, and Lies about Sin – and we’re moving into more practical lies women believe. The first are lies women believe about priorities.
Do you believe any of these lies about your priorities?
- I don’t have time to get everything done I’m supposed to do.
- I can make it without consistent time in the Word and prayer.
- A career outside the home is more valuable and fulfilling than being a wife and mother.
Personally, I struggle with the first two at times. The third one I’ve never really bought into. However, I feel the pull from our culture to start believing it all the time.
I want to talk to my single readers right now because you may be thinking, “Why do I need to even be thinking about being a wife and mother when I’m not a wife or mother?” Well, this is why.
Since I was a little girl I wanted to be a full-time homemaker. I also wanted to go to college, but I didn’t plan to climb the corporate ladder. Even from that early age I had (and still have) very strong convictions about staying at home and raising your children full-time.
I majored in education and became a teacher because I thought that would be the best career for a family just in case I wasn’t able to stay home; you can leave at 3:30 everyday and you get summers and holidays off. Well, I didn’t pray about this decision (which is another blog post for another day), and I quickly learned that even though my top spiritual gift is teaching, I hated teaching children in public schools. I know I shouldn’t use the word “hate”, but I really can’t think of a better word. It was rough.
I was a single woman late into my twenties and into my thirties, so I taught to support myself, and ended up teaching for 13 years. Finally, my dream was coming true. In my late 30’s I was married and expecting our baby girl. I was going get to be the full-time homemaker I always wanted to be. Except for one small problem.
My husband didn’t want me to stay home with our baby girl. He wanted me to work outside the home. The idea of staying home was foreign to him. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Why didn’t you talk about that before you got married?” Well, you’re right, and again that’s another blog post for another day. I did mention it when we were dating, but I didn’t make my convictions about staying at home with our children clear enough.
So why do you, as a single woman, need to think and pray about your role as a wife and mother and your career? Because when you are headed towards marriage, these questions will be important, and you will need to know where you stand on them apart from the influence of love. And even after you’re married you will find that the voices about women’s roles inside and outside of the home are loud. If you don’t know what God has called you to do, then you may begin believing the lie that a career outside the home is more valuable and fulfilling than being a wife and mother.
“However, according to 1 Corinthians 7:32-35, women who are unmarried are still called to be ‘homemakers,’ though in a different sense. They are to devote their energies and efforts to building the household of faith; they are to live selfless lives that revolve not around their own interests and aspirations, but around Christ and His kingdom.” Lies Women Believe, p. 127
What do you think? Do you struggle with any of these lies about priorities?
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