Alright, you must be thinking that my recent illness has affected my brain, if I think I can tell you how women are wired...and there may be some truth to this. However, although I am still trying to overcome some bad vertigo and a sinus infection, I am sharing with you out of research done by women. So, I speak on their authority in the midst of my infirmity.
This week I will share with you the contents of my intended sermon for last Sunday. (By the way, Great job and thanks Mike Richards for preaching!).
How are women wired when it relates to evaluating success and failure?
Women tend to evaluate their failure as a result of their inabilities. In other words, when women fail, they tend to believe, "I am not good enough." Contrast this with most men, who interpret their failure as a result of not trying hard enough. In other words, when men fail, they tend to believe, "I did not try hard enough." (Maybe this is why men always try to fix things, and are reluctant to ask for directions!)
Conversely, when it comes to successes, women interpret successes in terms of improbabilities. In other words, women believe their success is due to luck. However, men tend to interpret their success as a result of their efforts. So men tend to believe their successes result from their knack. In summary, women feel their success is because of luck, men feel their success is due to their knack. Yet for all Christians,our successes need to be understood as a result of grace, God's grace and mercy to us.
Nonetheless, are women to dismiss their God-given abilities? By no means!! Invalidating our abilities ignores the Almighty who endows. The woman, who ignores the One who endows with ability, is the woman who overlooks the gift of the Almighty. God is the One who endows with ability and God is the One who believes in accountability for what God endows.
Are you a woman who ignores her abilities and thereby dismisses the Almighty's work? What are you doing to discover those gifts of the Almighty? Are you a man who encourages a woman to discover her abilities and employ them for the One who endows? Are we all attributing all of our successes to the work of God's grace in our lives.
Beams Away!
Stay tuned for more about how Women are Wired.
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Just as God has endowed the lion with the glories or graces of His magnificent creature of creation the lion, his prowess, his speed, his beauty and his awesome power, we as both males and females are endowed with our "personal glory" or that which gives us distinction from one another and other parts of God's glorious creation. Without our personal ownership of our own successes, we loose our definition of who we are and the God given distinction in which we were uniquely gifted to "Glorify Him". I believe that we as Christians like to boost of a false sense of not owning our small glories (small g) and that everything we do is of God. However, this can not be true, as God gifted us in that while we were yet sinners, so that we in turn may grow in grace to produce a platform in which our small glory (small g) in this present age allows us to witness or give witness to His "higher Glory" (capital G) to the world in general. So, your statement of resolve that ALL of our successes are God's success... in my Biblical understanding are quite in conflict and contrary. If to be an upstanding correct and humble Christian, we would also have to say then that all of our failures are also God's. But, we know that this is not so. How then do we reconcile this gap between who we are that God should love us and what He has done in us? So, I believe the Church of Jesus Christ, has been fooling itself about its humbleness in this sense. On the other hand, I do not believe that our successes (small s) are due to our abilities, alone, but that they are due to our being en touch with God's gifting to us and His enabling those gifts to be used in a way that is harmonious and in right standing with Him as our Savior. So, I disagree with your overall white wash of all of our successes as God's grace. Rather, I would say that any success we achieve in our lives is a badge of grace that He alone gives us freely, so that our lives may be a place of success and therefore, have a sturdy platform in which to appeal to the world at large and therefore confess to them of our in ability to create it in us. Success (capital S) is therefore that which He alone gives us by grace for a specific and important purpose which is to Glorify Him in our successes in life (small s).
ReplyDeleteI think of an example where someone tries to do something that takes practice, perseverance, patience, and skill in order to succeed. This individual may have to go through many hours of preparing and intentionally doing activities which contribute to increasing your chances of success (reaching a goal). Exercising wisdom, utilizing mental capacity, and so forth. The goal is to do the particular task well at hand to the best of their ability and to the glory of the Lord. If they do not practice or take these steps, they most likely will not have the desired successful results. But these characteristics (which we have any control over)that lead to success are taught to us in books like Proverbs, as well as many other places in scripture. This scenario would support the thought process that God gives gifts and abilities that often need to be grown, exercised, taught, etc. So although I agree that we could overly pronounce humility as the benefactor of praise because as individuals, we may make great efforts towards succeeding at a task, we have to remember that our ability to persevere, our ability to practice, or the skill that we have, all comes from the Lord.
ReplyDeleteSo it's a fine line we have to walk as Christians. God gave us the ability to think, to thank others, to recognize gifts, to use gifts, to share with others. This gives us a beautiful uniqueness and our individuality.
Also consider how God warns us about the dangers of flattery. He also warns us against thinking higher of ourselves than we ought to. So keeping this in proper balance takes our individuality and keeps it in perspective when compared with our Perfect and loving Creator.
We should always be prayerfully considering how our actions glorify, or point to God.
I like what a Christian brother of mine said once when I once asked him "So what should I say when somebody compliments something I may have done?" he said "How about 'Thanks!'"