Woman’s Worth

Women must think biblically and have high expectations for how men approach them and honor them as sisters. Because of the imago Dei, ladies, because of your intrinsic value to God, you must not treat yourself cheaply. You must have high expectations for how men approach you, high expectations for how they honor you. You must understand your value before God in such a way that you will quickly and easily reject little boys who can shave who seek sexual company but will not honor your soul.

Now here’s what happens. For whatever reason, so many… Maybe it’s Daddy issues. I chalk it up to sin. Women must have higher expectations of how men approach them and treat them because they have been made in the image of God. You have not been given to man for simple comfort and pleasure. You are made in the image of God. Whether you’re married or you’re single, you’re intrinsically valuable. God has imparted to you a worth that you should gladly walk in and should let no man abuse.

-Excerpt from the sermon, In His Image

Mamas, how we think about ourselves, how we talk about our bodies, our minds, our responsibilities as a wife and mom — as a woman — will shape the way our sons and daughters see themselves and other women. When our daughters struggle with body image, when they don’t feel they are worthy of the love of a man who will honor and respect her, we need to get down on our knees and ask God to reveal to us our worth as women so that we may impart that glorious knowledge to our daughters. Similarly, when our sons do not honor and respect women, when their first inclination is to lust when they see a woman (regardless of how much clothes she is wearing or what she is doing/saying — i don’t care if her bra strap is showing and her lip is pouty on her instagram pic), we are failing to teach them the worth of women and we must pray for God to help us teach them to be men of God, not boys, governed by their own desires and passions.

I know this is easy for me to say since my boys are only 2 and 4 years old and my girls are only 6 and 8, but I was raised in a home where women were not valued as being made in the image of God. I was taught by most of the prominent authority figures in my life that my beauty and sexuality was a problem for men, that I would be  stumbling block to them. I was not taught  that my beauty is a tool to be used to bless others, and I certainly wasn’t encouraged to cherish and nurture my sexuality for my husband.  I’ll do everything I possibly can, by God’s strength, not to allow my sons and daughters to believe that kind of blasphemy, to believe that kind of attack on God and on ourselves. I’m not better than my parents, no doubt, I am a far worse sinner, and my parents did several things very well in how they raised me, I am thankful for them and for the skills they gave me continue to bless my family and friends on a daily basis, I love my parents, however, God in his kindness and mercy  has revealed this truth to me: how I see myself (and how my husband sees me, incidentally) will have a weighty influence on how my children see women. I know I make mistakes every day, especially with my children, I’m not trying to be arrogant here, but by God’s grace and His strength alone, maybe this won’t be one of them.

Chandler goes on to ask, in the same sermon,

I wonder what would happen in a world where we understood the imago Dei to where pornography made us sick and didn’t arouse us. I wonder what would happen on that day if men and women could treat one another as brothers and sisters and not objects to be consumed.