Ser As I was reading today, I remembered why it is that I so love reading about the role of women throughout church history. It is because I grew up with a neighbor who was an ex-nun. I couldn't understand then-and I still don't understand now-how someone could think they could serve and please God better by living an isolated and secluded life with very limited contact with the world. I suppose this ex-nun had had that same thought, because she left the convent, got married, and had four great kids. (Two of them were my age, and we were close friends.) This ex-nun totally served God and unquestionably pleased Him by being an excellent wife and a good mother, and by living in community with her neighbors. The thought that God is more pleased by a life lived in isolation fascinates me because of its ridiculousness. This is also the reason I absolutely love Martin Luther, who led the way in pointing out the sheer nonsense of thinking that being a wife and mother was an inferior way of life than being a nun. That was the prevailing thought in Christendom for hundreds of years. I want to serve and to please God, and I think that is best done by living life in the open-doing good works for others, sitting with the citizenry of the world, sharing the reason for our Christian faith. In my life right now, that means being a loving and submissive wife, a dutiful and compassionate daughter-in-law, a Godly mother, and a good and faithful sister, friend, aunt, niece, cousin. We all have specific ways to serve and please God, and I encourage you to think about how you can best do that in your life.ving God Where You Are

As I was reading today, I remembered why it is that I so love reading about the role of women throughout church history. It is because I grew up with a neighbor who was an ex-nun. I couldn't understand then-and I still don't understand now-how someone could think they could serve and please God better by living an isolated and secluded life with very limited contact with the world. I suppose this ex-nun had had that same thought, because she left the convent, got married, and had four great kids. (Two of them were my age, and we were close friends.) This ex-nun totally served God and unquestionably pleased Him by being an excellent wife and a good mother, and by living in community with her neighbors.
The thought that God is more pleased by a life lived in isolation fascinates me because of its ridiculousness.
This is also the reason I absolutely love Martin Luther, who led the way in pointing out the sheer nonsense of thinking that being a wife and mother was an inferior way of life than being a nun. That was the prevailing thought in Christendom for hundreds of years.
I want to serve and to please God, and I think that is best done by living life in the open-doing good works for others, sitting with the citizenry of the world, sharing the reason for our Christian faith. In my life right now, that means being a loving and submissive wife, a dutiful and compassionate daughter-in-law, a Godly mother, and a good and faithful sister, friend, aunt, niece, cousin. We all have specific ways to serve and please God, and I encourage you to think about how you can best do that in your life.