Dear Friend of Mine Who is a Woman,

People need you. Like you didn’t already know this, right!?! You are probably feeling the strain of your life’s demands (and that includes people) right now in this moment in one way or another. Whether you’re raising a family, working full time, running a homestead or your own business, or doing all of the above, you are driven to be who God created you to be and live your life to the fullest, bearing Kingdom fruit as you go. And that includes, whether you like it or not, being needed by people.

We can embrace it or resent it, but either way, God created woman as a life-giver from the get-go and that means that we are and will be needed in life on this earth.  Giving birth is only the start of the many ways women give life to those around them. How about the meals you make to nourish your people? The mental load you carry to keep the plates spinning and the balls rolling? The too-many-to-count prayerful tears that you’ve cried on behalf of those in your world who are hurting and in need of a healing? Each of these are life-giving acts of sacrifice that the Savior sees. And they are bringing life to the people that need you.

Much of our perspective on this role that God has given us is determined by our heart posture. Are we bowed before Him first (which is where we get what we need in order to survive and thrive as we are needed) or are we bending our knee first before the needy people in front of us (which is a form of idolatry that will always leave us empty)? The former will fill us with the fruits of the Spirit– love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. The latter will always lead to the opposite—and a bitterness about us that flows into all of our relationships. Especially the ones that matter most.

So, what can we do to root out a wrong and unhelpful perspective on being needed and have a heart bowed before the Father? We can first base our beliefs about our womanhood on Scripture and not culture. Life-givers who share themselves and sacrifice like Jesus did are indeed, blessed. Favored. Looked upon with His boundless grace, steadfast love and renewing mercy. Secondly, we can, out of the truth of His Word and with the help of His Spirit, change our attitudes. Pray about this! Ponder what it means and picture yourself walking in a newness of life in this area.

When I think about my own heart posture and perspective, and how it can oftentimes get misaligned, I go back to and read about the woman presented in 1 Peter Chapter Three. She had an “imperishable beauty” that had great impact on her husband, who is noted first as an unbeliever and second, as a follower of Jesus because of, in part, her life testimony.  This woman is said to have had a heart that was “precious” in God’s sight.  She had placed her hope and trust in Him. And she had embraced her position in her husband’s life as a life-giver. No doubt, she prayed many a prayer of intercession for him and for herself as she—catch this—felt the weight of the fact that he needed her.

He didn’t need her to save Him but he needed her to love him with the love of Christ who would. He needed her to set the example before his broken life by having an inner peace of knowing her eternity was secure in heaven while she lived with him in this life here on earth. He needed her to have a merciful mindset toward his sinful tendencies and a servant’s attitude towards his internal needs as she found Christ to be the sole source of her own. He needed her to do the practical tasks of giving life out of pure joy within their home and to their family as she worked whole-heartedly doing everything she did as unto the Lord.

This is being needed at its best: resilient rest in God and not self. Humble service to God and love for others. Belief that He is the ultimate author of eternal life and life abundant.  And most of all, being needed is a call to recognize our need for Him.

So, dear friend who is a woman. Yes, you are needed by others but please remember that you are not the ultimate source of their needs. Our God is. And all of the needs you have as you are needed? He supplies them all. Amen?

Philippians 4::19 “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus”