Wonderful women, inspiring stories!

The part of the class I've enjoyed the most thus far has been all the amazing personal stories we've been able to listen to. Each of them is so unique, so personal, so clear in that God's redemptive story works itself out in an individual way through each of us. That's a hopeful and affirming thought...it's good to be different...and it's good to be the same.

Anyway, there were a few things that really struck a chord with me tonight. The first was Jere said that she hadn't felt acute discrimination, even though it was there. That's how I feel, too. And I feel like this class and some of the conversations I've had a result of it have encouraged me to feel discriminated. And I don't think that's right. I have grown up in a patriarchal home and I've never felt limited. The buck stops with Dad at the Fakkema house, but he is the first to affirm women in ministry and leaderships roles; he would never tell me I couldn't do something.

Another thing that Jere said that made lots of sense to me was that the Holy Spirit is the "mom" of the trinity. For some reason, I don't know why, I have always thought of Jesus as a male, God as a Father, and the Holy Spirit as an "it." Because how can you put a spirit into a gender box...but when I start thinking about it that way, thinking of God as a male is the same thing. However, when I pray the Lord's prayer, I am praying to God the Father Almighty. So until that changes, I'm comfortable relating to God as a man. If somebody else wants to think of God as neither male nor female or as female, I'm fine with that, too. But when I pray, I'm praying to a Father.