Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Watching and Waiting

My friend who writes a blog about her spiritual journey wrote today about how all the great spiritual leaders had a long period of waiting and listening before they began their public ministries. Christian women have waited for two thousand years, and now it may be time for them to begin their public ministries.

Woman have consistently been handed the children for purposes of nurture, but we were deemed too weak minded to teach the older males. It is time that men listen to the voices and hearts of their women and honor them as leaders instead of walking away when women speak. How else can they know what messages are being handed down to their offspring?

Where traditional men seem to want to force change on their own time lines, traditional women are taught to wait. We accept that change is a gradual process, and that forced pledges of allegiance don't build team spirit. It is careful teaching by bonding and by example that bears the fruits of The Spirit.

A great gift that motherhood has given me is the ability to watch and wait, being ever vigilant for "teaching moments" and learning moments. I never cease to be amazed at how competent my children are as parents. The lessons learned while watching them certainly would have come in handy when I was in their shoes.