What Every Woman Wished She Had Known at 15

At the ripe age of 42, I find myself, for the first time, seriously studying the word of God. And, for the first time, I'm learning that there are rules. Spiritual rules. Rules for living, for marrying, for courtship, for intercourse. There is an instruction manual to life, and it's called The Bible. The Good Book. The Living Word. The Word of God. And it is through this awesome, inspired very long "speech" from God that we are to direct our lives.

Why is it that so many of us don't learn this in our childhood? Why is it that so many of us grow up in churches that don't teach us the word of God? That simply teach us what we want to hear? That, my friends, is a question I cannot answer in the short span of this book. But, I submit to you that the only way to build a true personal relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is to study His word. The only way to clear up the doubts, to build your faith, to understand His will for your life is to study His word. The only way to know God's plan for you and your children's children is to study His word.

I had a friend recently tell me that she doesn't study The Bible because it's sexist in nature. After peeling myself off the ceiling, I realized she was right. The Bible is sexist. And it's supposed to be. It's popular now to know "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus". Why? Because that is the way God designed it. We are different, and we have different purposes in His plan. And, it is not okay to reject that plan because we women want the men's power, or vice versa. It is not okay to say, "Okay, I'm tired of God's plan for men and women, and now it's time for me to be the man." It doesn't work like that.

I once had a male therapist tell me (an African American male) that I had more hang-ups that were similar to a white male than anyone he'd ever met. I had so assimilated into my corporate personality, that I had crossed a line emotionally and spiritually into a world that was not my own. Pretty ludicrous, right? Well, I tell you, that is the message we're giving our young girls: be a man, and be a white man, at that. I was encouraged to get a really good job, and buy my own house, and have my own fancy car. And when it was all said and done, I saw my life flash before me, 20 years down the line, like the executive women who mentored me. And I saw myself in a big house, like theirs, with a nice Mercedes-Benz, like theirs, and a vacation timeshare, like theirs, and a DVD, remote, dish-washer, maid, and otherwise empty home.

And, I'm standing on my soap-box right now, telling you that this was NOT GOD'S PLAN FOR OUR LIVES! And now, these women, who were at the top of their fields, will be the last in their genealogy lines. They will have had no husbands to grow old with, no children whom they've sacrificed for, and no one to visit them in the nursing home they must inevitably submit themselves to. No one to carry on their names or their love for the Lord. And, why? Because, they followed the plan of the enemy - and not God's plan, which is to "prosper and multiply (Genesis 9:6-8)."