Good enough
Who determines what is enough? How do we know
when we are good enough?
Enough means: sufficient for the
need; sufficient for the purpose or to fulfill a desire. In her book, Enough, Tamyra Horst writes:
"To be enough, then, means to
fulfill the need and purpose for which we were created. Who determines our
purpose and decides if we are enough?"[1] She then goes on to discuss the people and
things that affect our self-worth: Strangers on social media, classmates or
colleagues, our appearance or degrees, bosses, preachers, co-workers, family
and friends. But these are the very parameters by which we often measure
ourselves and find that we are not enough.
Of course, this is also due to the
belittling that women have become accustomed to over the centuries. It is
remarkable that the books about self-worth are mostly addressed to women. The
male-centered patriarchal world that has stolen women's true worth is as
pervasive as the air we breathe. We live in a misogynistic atmosphere, even if
we often don't realize it anymore. In addition to this, there are the
pronounced religious falsehoods about women: [2]
1. Women brought sin and death into the world
2. Women are to blame for the fall of the human race
3. Women are inferior to men physically, mentally and spiritually
4. Women were intended to be subservient to men
5. Women are not capable of exercising authority and leadership
6. A godly woman is a silent, submissive, and domestic woman
7. Women are responsible for the sexual temptations and transgressions
of men
8. Women are weak, emotional, and irrational
9. Women are expected by God to stay in demeaning, damaging,
destructive, or abusive relationships
10. Women should deny and repress themselves in order to serve and
satisfy others
11. Women who act assertively and defiantly, enforce personal boundaries, or express anger are ungodly.
Tertullian, one of the early Church
Fathers (born 160 AD), said of women, "You are the devil's gateway. How easily you have destroyed man, the image
of God. Because of the death you have brought upon us, even the Son of God had
to die."
The Christian church, which should
proclaim God's love, has unfortunately contributed to degrading women. They
have been manipulated with fear and shame, and they have learned that there is
nothing good in them. Many women still suffer the consequences of this kind of
mental, emotional and spiritual oppression to which they were subjected in
their childhood and youth.
It is high time that women study the
Bible to determine what the Bible really says about women. We experience the
world as a patriarchal world, but that need not have been God's intention. I
will address this in a later essay.
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