The race of life

I believe that we as the younger generation of the church have much to learn from the older, more spiritually wise men and women in the church family. It is important to listen to what they have to say and what they have gone through because a lifetime serving Christ looks differently for each person and in a lifetime there is a lot to have been learned. In order to get a better perspective of what it is like for a woman in the church older than myself I interviewed my mom about what her experience has been like in the church. Because I did question my mom, I know a lot of background that surround the questions and can understand better the situations she describes as spiritual experiences and such because I was there with her through most of it.

My mom described her current spiritual journey as strong with times of weakness but always knowing that Jesus will show her new ways to grow and will answer her doubts in time as well. This is so true in almost everyone’s life I think even if they admit it or not. Everyone is going to experience times of highs and lows but part of having faith is knowing that despite where you are in your life you will be held up by the love of Christ. This is what pushes me through hard times and makes me want to become a better person each day as well.

When I began to ask my mom about how she became a Christian and how faith found her she laughed a little looking back at the memories of how she came to know Christ as her Savior. My mom was not raised in a Christian home many of her family members were alcoholics and spent their time smoking and drinking rather than showing their children the way in which they should live their lives. Despite this upbringing my mom never fell into the trap of alcohol and was brought to church by one of her friends in high school who herself was struggling from brain cancer. After the service they prayed for here friend to be healed and a week later she was miraculously cancer free! After seeing this my mom could not stay away form a God who had such compassion that he would help a suffering girl in her time of need. She knew she was missing out on a great relationship with a caring and compassionate God. So a few weeks later my mom went back to that church with her friend and came into contact with church members who were rude and many people who spoke in tongues. This was a huge turning point for her she was scared and angered that people who would serve this great God would be so rude and she was just scared of the speaking in tongues all together so she stopped going to church all together. It wasn’t until she met my dad that she returned to her interest and finally decided to live her life for Christ. Since this time my parents have obviously married and had my brother and I. There have been many struggles for our family and times that have stretched my mom’s faith and made it stronger as well but all of these experiences have only reaffirmed her desire to live a life of faith.

After we spoke about her life experiences with faith and Christianity I asked her what she thought about men and women and their differences in the church. Also I asked her about her opinion of women in leadership positions in the church. She first spoke about how men were created in the image of god and women was created in the image of man so thus they will be different. She also talked about how women are not less spiritual just created differently than men. She believes that if Eve hadn’t made the decisions that she had someone else would have come around to make that same mistake and we would still be in the same place we are today. According to her beliefs this was all a part of God’s plan and that no matter who it was making the mistake it would have been done and we would still have been in this same place of living in sin daily. As far as women in leadership go my mom believes that women should not be head or lead pastors in the church. She is fully supportive of women being involved in the church, she is the worship leader at our church at home and there is no problem with women speaking their opinions or having a voice in the church, she thinks it is important that they do. At our church we have men in leadership roles and they are especially careful to respect and listen to the voices and needs of the women in the church. This creates an environment that everyone feels heard and that follows biblical truths. Her perspective is probably a lot of the reason why I came into this class thinking the same way as her. I thought this way exactly but now having been informed of so much and looking deeper into what the passages are truly saying I am in a grey area. I don’t really know what the right or correct answer is to this question. But I do know that if I continue to seek advice from those older and with more life experience than me and also seek God’s will through His word I will eventually find a level of understanding. I will not ever understand completely but will know more of what God’s will for this subject is. Overall, I am so grateful to have people in my life that I can look to for answers and opinions that have been running the race of life a bit longer than myself and know the course better than me. It is comforting to know that at my age I do not have to have the answer to every question but that I should be searching relentlessly until I come to a place that is closer to the answer than when I began the race.