Before you read, check out part one.
REFLECTING GOD’S BEAUTY IN WOMANHOOD
How do we reflect God’s beauty in womanhood? By reflecting Beauty Himself.
If God calls someone to do something is that pretty significant?
This is the Creator of the universe, the holy, holy, holy God of all things calling you to do something.
This is life changing.
Who made you female? Who made you with your specific hair and eye color, with your unique and valuable personality and talents?
You reflect God’s beauty by not despising the calling you’ve been given. What is that calling? Womanhood.
As Creator, God has the right and authority to give male and female certain roles and as creatures we are to follow and obey that.
But the splendid love and glory of God is that He will never command something of us that will not bring us the greatest joy our hearts have ever known.
In all things and in all ways, God is plotting for your joy.
Therefore we can honor Him by joyfully embracing our womanhood. By striving to be a woman who is glad to be a woman. By allowing men to be men the way God designed and affirming, respecting and honoring them when they do.
And when we do, we’ll find happiness. Love. Freedom.
WHERE IS YOUR IDENTITY?
Where do women almost always find their identity?
In their looks, their success, their jobs, their titles, what other people think about them.
But this is not so with a woman of the Bible, with the female who has mature femininity.
The woman who is secure in her womanhood has an identity untethered to what the world tells her and not even to what she does. Those things are flimsy. They change. But a mature woman’s identity is in what the Lord says about her in His Word.
What does the Lord say about her?
He says she is a masterpiece with intrinsic and deep value because she was carved and designed in the very image of God. She is beautiful because the Author of Beauty made her. Yet there is sin and there is ugliness and to restore what was lost in the Garden, there must be a heart change.
After repentance (turning from sin and turning to Christ) and becoming the glowing, resplendent Bride of Christ—a role in which you are obligated to die to your own wants and inclinations daily—you are ushered into the stunning title of “co-heir with Christ”. You and Christ are one. You get what Christ gets.
Awesome.
No longer is your identity in what the world says you are to be.
You are not your grades.
You are not your looks.
You are not your clothes.
You are not your mistakes.
You are not your marital status.
You are not what people say about you.
You are not your past.
You are not your future.
You are a woman.
“A good wife is heaven’s last best gift to man; his angel and minister of graces innumerable; his gem of many virtues; his casket of jewels; her voice his sweet music; her smiles his brightest day; her kiss the guardian of his innocence; her arms the pale of his safety, the balm of his health, the balsam of his life; her industry, his surest wealth; her economy, his safest steward; her lips, his faithful counselors; her bosom, the softest pillow of his cares; and her prayers, the ablest advocates of heaven’s blessings on his head.” –Jeremy Taylor, English bishop and theologian
You are heaven’s last best gift.
What an honor.
MY PRAYER
The world is full of cowards and passive pansies who find it easier to compromise than be courageous. Yes, that is easier, but I pray with all my heart that God would work in my future husband—in our future husbands, a supreme and holy confidence that compels them to stand up and stand firm, to be glad to be a man and willing to initiate, lead and humbly serve, just as Jesus did.
My prayer is that God would raise up a generation of men unafraid to be men girded and clothed in strength and raw masculinity in order to serve the Father as a holy warrior with a heavenly mission.
My prayer is that God would raise up a generation of women unashamed to be feminine and distinctly different from men. Women who know real, authentic beauty comes only from a life fully devoted to following Christ and who desire to be drenched in Proverbs 31, grace and elegance while serving their eternal Husband.
“The world cries for men who are strong; strong in conviction, strong to lead, to stand, to suffer. I pray you would be that kind of man, Pete, glad that God made you a man, glad to shoulder the burden of manliness in a time when to do so will often bring contempt.” –Elisabeth Elliot to her nephew, Pete, in Mark of a Man
Likewise the world cries for women who are strong; strong in conviction, in faith, in discipline and in dependency on their Savior.
What’s stopping us?
Sophie Miller 
What a beautiful post about the role of Womanhood. I find that there is a huge misconception when understanding that “God created male and female in his image” since God is most commonly referred to as a man. Although this terminology is metaphorical, it leaves women with the impression that human males more closely reflect the image of God. Sexuality is a property of the creation, not the Creator. As having key characteristics that reside in God as you discussed we must not let the enemy devalue our position. We have not been cheated, but chosen to represent a specific part of God. I could discuss this topic all day, thanks for such an inspiring post!
“We have not been cheated, but chosen to represent a specific part of God.” Exactly. I love that, Paige! That’s why we, men and women, represent God most fully within the boundaries of marriage, complementing one another and giving a fuller representation of God to the world. Men and women both have unique and God-breathed roles and therefore we shouldn’t skirt from our gender. It’s a gift. Thank you for reading, Paige and for taking the time to comment–so encouraging!
Oh my gosh! Ok, I wasn’t going to comment on this post too because it felt like I was breaking some internet/blog/social protocol, but then you quote Jeremy Taylor. (And Elizabeth Elliot, another favourite of mine.) How did you start reading his work? I’d never heard of him up until a few months ago. I’m slowly becoming an antique-Christian-literature junkie because it seems like the “old fashioned” Christian writing is so much more to the point than more modern sources, as well as more relevant to my life, and more biblically sound. (Please think of this as enthusiasm and not as the ravings of lunacy… I get a little passionate sometimes… ahem.)
Your post echoes the theme God’s been driving home to me and I appreciate your willingness to publicly tackle a somewhat unpopular subject. It’s not fashionable to be a gentle, feminine woman right now–but that’s what honors the Lord, and good on you for living/praying it out. This is a huge encouragement to me!
I’m so glad you commented! Elisabeth Elliot is one of my favorite humans (and, through her books, one of the most influential people in my life)! I actually learned about Jeremy Taylor through Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park actually. Haha! I think Elisabeth Elliot has also quoted him before, but I’ve never actually read any of his work, just some of his quotes. I think I could definitely be categorized as “an antique-Christian-literature junkie”! I love the old dead guys and the old dead women. I love their depth. Who are some of your favorites?
Thank you again for your sweet words of encouragement—it means so much. Here’s to being gentle, passionate, Gospel-driven, Christocentric women who are glad to be women!
I’ve been delving into L. H. M. Soulsby lately (doing a reader’s digest version of one of her books on my blog, actually), but I also love Elizabeth Prentiss. You may have heard of Stepping Heavenward? She’s got a few others that I’m getting around to, but I think that’s her most popular. I am also a Jane Austen fan. 🙂 Sense and Sensibility is another book I have going right now. Neat to find someone with so much in common, I look forward to keeping up on your writing. 🙂