The Measure of a Woman

Couldn’t pass up this title in the free bin at church. The Measure of a Woman, written in 1970 by Gene Getz and sporting a nice looking lady with a very 70’s hairdo. Mmmm…. My thought was I would try and read it thinking about how the content was being impacted by the Feminist Movement. Sure enough, the first story was about a character, Nancy, who was being drawn into a “movement” that stirred up feelings of discontent regarding being a mother and wife.

I was just about to put the book down when I noticed the chapter entitled, “Loving your Children.” After a pretty rough day of barely doing that, I thought it might be a good read.

It was basically a study on the passage from Titus 2 where older women are exhorted to train younger women to, among other things, love their children. The author spent the entire chapter explaining why it is we might need to be trained to love our children, why it sometimes is difficult to do so, and practical ways to keep love the primary mode of communication between parent and child. OK, I was floored. She expressly said it IS difficult to love our children, which at first seemed counter-intuitive, after all they are our CHILDREN. But, she goes on to share that women from every culture and time have struggled with the emotional and physical demands of raising children, which if not handled with the help of Jesus can lead to real feelings of resentment and hostility.

This hit me right between the eyes. I feel so guilty when I have days where I resent the kids presence, when my agendas are blocked by their needs, when they just plain annoy me. I usually feel very isolated by these moods because I assume every other mother out there oozes love and affection every moment, because after all, these are our CHILDREN.

But, after reading this I felt the call to two very healthy habits which have been sliding in my life. One was to begin relating with some older women again, who I know are just waiting to encourage me and help me LOVE my children. One lady in particular came to mind and I know if I had just a quick sliver of time with her, many things would be better.

The other was just the very simple reminder that apart from Christ I am nothing and I can do nothing. Nothing good anyway. I’m through thinking I have some sort of spiritual goodness reserve. It was emptied long ago. I need Jesus every day. Period.