Deborah

This past Thursday was our Women's Bible Study group. The ladies have graciously agreed to meet at my house so that I can still watch the kids and Brad can continue working, rather than taking half a day off to come home. The kids were great! Aria and Finn napped while Cadence watched "Care Bears", or as she likes to call them, "The Carenstein Bears" (like "The Berenstein Bears"). Pat, the lady who usually leads the group, is taking a few weeks off due to losing her husband and moving. So, I volunteered to step in as facilitator for the time being. I was so excited, after preparing for the study, that I got to start off by leading the study on the topic of Deborah. Do you know much about her? I didn't. In fact, Esther used to be my favorite woman in the Bible, but now Deborah is. She is an amazing example of what it means to take the supportive and submissive role as a woman/wife/mother and be powerful in the Lord. A brief summary, Deborah was a judge and prophetess in Israel. People would come to her for advice and God's guidance. The reason Deborah was in this leadership role was not because she was trying to be stronger than the men, but because no men where stepping up to lead, so the Lord called her to do it. The cool thing about this, though, was that she stepped up to the task with the attitude of trying to lead and guide the men back into their leadership roles. She was a leader, but she was still supporting the men and always encouraging them in the leadership roles that the Lord made for them, never trying to take over or push out the men. Many women, especially today's liberal feminists, may think this is weak. That women are just as strong as men and can and should be able to do anything they do. I see Deborah as powerful! It can be hard to support and submit and not going around boasting about all the things you did, but that is what she did. Yes, people came to her for advice and direction, but at the end of it all, the people followed Barak, the male leader whom Deborah walked along side and supported in his leadership role. Then, as a result of their defeat of the Canaanites, more men had faith in the Lord and reclaimed their leadership roles. All this because a wife and mom had enough faith to follow the Lord and obey what He said.