Quote of the Day

Taking a cue from our brilliant, godly, and fun friend, PalmTree Pundit, I would like to offer my first “quote of the day” …

Taken from a Wendy Alsup essay on “The Ideal Christian Woman”:

“First of all, “godliest” is a bad label. It implies we determine our godliness by comparing ourselves to others. “She’s godlier than that other lady, so that makes her the godliest.” Wrong! Christ is our standard of perfection, and we all fall short of His glory. The best analogy I’ve heard is that it is like someone standing on a sheet of paper and claiming to be closer to the sun. When we try to use the label “godliest,” we are equally absurd.”

To tempt you further (I do hope you’ll pop on over and read it), just consider a few more lines from Mrs. Alsup’s SPOT ON essay:

“We have many godly, mature ladies at Mars Hill with great wisdom to offer their sisters in Christ. The first quality of all of them is humility. They realize their unworthiness and don’t hold their preferences on childbirth, breastfeeding, education, dinner prep, and so forth as anything for which to pat themselves on the back. In fact, among the mature, Christlike women I know at Mars Hill, there are diverse opinions on each of these issues. Also, we have many godly women who are not married and/or do not have children. These women too are humble servants, hospitable with their resources and Christlike in their priorities.

I have definitely felt pressure from godly Christian women. But rather than feeling peer pressure to conform to some outward stereotype, I have felt pressure to know God, spend time in His Word, to pray, to be humble, to love my husband and children, and to embrace my role in their lives. While I have gleaned great practical information on breastfeeding, education, childbirth, dinner prep, etc from these ladies, I haven’t felt pressure to conform to their image. No–they point me to conform to Christ’s image (Romans 8:29).”

Well said. Well said indeed!