The Strength of Women

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

As I record this episode, we are ending the season of Lent and beginning the triduum of Our Lord where we remember the last supper, the crucifixion and death of Jesus, and ultimately the resurrection of Jesus.

And this time of year reaffirms my role, as a woman, in God’s redemptive mission.  It reminds me of how confidently and fiercely God depends on woman.

As women, we have tremendous power and influence – the right kind of power and influence which is not for personal gain. 

Our power and influence is to welcome Jesus into our family and witness to him with our family and friends.

God Chose the Best Way

God could have sent His Son any way He thought best –

Jesus could have walked in from the desert and began His mission.

and yet He chose a woman to be the means in which he brought the Savior of the world into the world.

Think of that for a moment – what tremendous confidence God had in Mary – a simple woman.

The Gift of Maternity

Do we stop and reflect on the awesome privilege we have been given in our maternity?  Sometimes, we may be quick to focus on the discomfort and disruption or fear for the future a pregnancy may bring. 

And yet, God is telling us – through His gift of maternity – that He depends on us to bring life into the world and that He has confidence in us that we can fulfill the mission.

That same woman, Mary, launched Jesus into public life even after He protested that it wasn’t His time yet.  He moved at His mother’s request.

How often we find ourselves in a place where we need to make the right decision.  It may not be the decision we would like to make – it may bring us heartache and suffering – and yet, God is depending on us, as He depended on Mary, to make the tough decisions that will ultimately bring the people around us to live with Him in heaven.

Be Courageous

It was a woman, Claudia, who warned her husband, Pontius Pilate, to “have nothing to do with that righteous man.”

Sometimes, we’re called to courageously defend the innocent in our life.  We’re asked to stand up for what is right even at a cost.

When all the apostles except John, ran away (even some denying they knew Jesus), there were women at the foot of the cross.  Steadfast, strong – there until the end.  They watched the horrors of the crucifixion and they mourned the death of their friend and Mary’s son. They prepared the body for burial.

But there is one whose courage and devotion was so remarkable that the Evangelist who was there indicated the detail that she was “standing.”

That woman was the mother of the man on the central cross.

Strength for Our Husband and Children

As woman our husbands and our children depend on us to stand strong and stand firm so they can have the courage and fortitude to do what is right in the world – even when it is inconceivably difficult.

Those we love will deal with injustice, immorality, a general lack of kindness, and faithlessness from the majority of the people they encounter in the world.

Our job – with God’s help – is to stand strong for them.

Women of Faith

Women kept watch at the tomb.

It was women who came to the tomb in the early morning and saw that Jesus was not there. 

And women who brought the news of the resurrection to all His followers.

Jesus appeared first to a woman, Mary Magdalene.

Women believed in His resurrection even when men didn’t.

The steadfast love of women is an infinite power for the good.

If you are ever tempted to believe the lie of the world that women are not important in bringing about the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, see how the resurrection story would not have been the same without women.

I am grateful to the heroic, strong, courageous, unwavering, love-filled, and faith-filled women I call my sisters in faith –

May the example of those women embolden us to be more like them!

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