“My husband is my
best friend, but he could never take the place of the women who were and are
foundational in my life,” says Anita Carman, Founder of Inspire Women.
“God never meant for my husband to fill every role in my life. When I try to
make him what he is not, all I do is drain him!”
The Bible speaks of
women encouraging each other such as Mary the mother of Jesus going to visit
her cousin Elizabeth after the angelic visitation,” says Carman. “Elizabeth
God saw it fit to
team women up in pairs or in groups. He designed women to be in each other’s
lives as part of a biblically supportive community. Pastors have
expressed the need for women to minister to the women. This is especially true
in situations where women have suffered abuse.
The Bible speaks of
the older women teaching the younger women. God values the experience of a
longer walk of faith with
Him and validates the impact of an older woman speaking truth to another.
Some say women are
more effective ministering to women because they are natural nurturers. Others
say it’s because they tend to be more relational. The Bible does not attribute the results to
nurturing or to relationship skills but simply evidences the structure of a
biblical community. God designed women to help each other.
So what happens
when a church does not have a women’s ministry? This means there is no
intentional structure to foster relationships among women. Chances are, women do not
have a structure in place where they can voice their needs and have those needs
answered through the guidance, love, and support of other women.
When a woman is
alone, her mind can easily become the playground of the devil. There is no
voice of accountability in her life. There is no one who will walk beside her
and keep her from making wrong choices.
I woke up at the
age of 17 to find my mother had taken her own life. Had there been a woman in
her life who was observing her depressed state, I believe someone would have
intervened.
Instead, I was a
teen who was oblivious to the seriousness of my mother’s pain. And my father
was trying to use logic to respond to my mother’s wounded heart.
One of the most
important women in my life was my spiritual mother. Her prayers carried me through
my hardest challenges. When I was frustrated in building a ministry with few
contacts, she would say, “Your heavenly Father knows your name.” When the
ministry needed resources she would remind me, “Trust your heavenly Father. He
has everything under control.”
Women helping
women, women teaching women, women encouraging women, women praying for women
enrich our lives with relationships that will feed our souls while
fulfilling God’s purpose on earth.
In establishing the
ministry of Inspire Women, I penned these words to express the ministry’s
meaning in a woman’s life: “Imagine a world where every woman wakes up knowing
her purpose. More than that, she has a friend who believes in her and will
invest in her potential to change the world.”
“When women compete
with women,” says Carman, founder of Inspire
Women, “they are deviating from God’s design. When women help each other, we
reach more than each could accomplish alone. Today God has called home my spiritual mother but I can still
remember the many hours we talked on the phone. I still recall how excited she
was to receive my call and to listen to all that God had done to part a Red Sea . And
then in her usual pattern, she would put the phone down on her lap. Then I
would hear her clap while shouting the words, ‘Yeah Anita!’”
As iron sharpens iron, so one person (woman)
sharpens another (woman). Proverbs 27:17
Rejoicing in Truth!
1 comment:
Totally agree with you.
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