“Should Girls Be Highly Educated“…There are rarely things that get me super heated I feel the need to respond with such tenacity but this was the title of a blog post I came across on Facebook today and felt physically ill as I read it.  Perhaps in reading her commentary I misinterpreted her points but honestly being in the place I’m in at the moment, it felt like a punch in the gut.  I will NEVER underestimate the value of the time I’ve had at home with my children as a mother.  I know being able to stay at home with my babies was a blessing many mothers are not afforded for a variety of reasons and some by choice.  What I found so hard to swallow was the mindset this viewpoint portrays.  Being thinly veiled as a “biblical” principle with a few select verses to support her argument I found it, quite frankly, incredibly arrogant to presume that the role for all women, of all time is to be keeper of the home, family and her husband.  Below are some of the snippets I found particularly “intriguing” and while I tried to be fair in grabbing things that may have provided equal evidence to her argument it all seemed equally distasteful…

“I’m always surprised to discover these questions typically come from college graduates; teachers, nurses, and others turned homemakers. They have exchanged their diploma for their MRS degree, believing (as I do) that the most important place for a mother is in the home. In the face of cultural opposition, they see the value of a homemaker and understand her importance in light of Scripture….

How many unhappy marriages, broken homes, miserable, desperate wives, and rebellious children will it take before we admit that intentionally preparing our daughter to be keepers of the home is not just “a nice idea,” but a necessary one?…

Should a girl be highly educated?
Yes, yes, YES!

Let her study the culinary arts so she can grill a fine steak and bake a mean loaf of bread for her family.

Let her pursue reading, writing, and rhetoric so she can teach her children with confidence and excellence.

Let her learn all she can about medicine and herbs and vaccines so she can make informed decision regarding her family’s healthcare.

Let her study child development and parenting techniques.

Let her explore birthing methods and midwifery so she can deliver her babies without fear.

Let her learn accounting so she can manage the books and balance the budget.

If she learns all these things well, she’ll enter motherhood well prepared, and if she never marries, she’ll have more than enough tools in her box to “make it on her own.””

Some may say my response comes from feeling guilty because I am currently sacrificing my role as mother, to an extent, to be “highly educated” and I’ll leave that judgement in their own minds.  But I can say with confidence that the role I fulfill currently is very much a calling God has placed on my life.  And I know MANY godly women who choose to embark on a path of education because they know that God has called them to roles that are not considered traditional.  I have never and will never presume to tell any woman in my life that being a homemaker is “less than” desirable but in that same breath I will never question that many women have found their calling outside the home to coincide with motherhood.

What angers me most about her statements is that we cannot EVER go back to the Garden of Eden and for that matter how do any of us actually know what God’s original plan would have played out like in that perfect place?  Why do we presume to know these things?  Paradise on this earth will NEVER exist and so we live within the fallenness and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us each individually to be who God intended us to be inside AND outside the home, all the while, trusting that His guidance is, in fact, the “important” place He wants us to be.  AND if she had been reading passages of scripture without a clear bias she would discover that there are plenty of examples in scripture that lead us to believe that God did not intend to cloister a woman within the confines her home strictly for the purposes of being a “homemaker” by today’s standards.  It is disappointing that this skewed perspective represents a fraction of believers that is then taken as a belief of a whole.

Feel free to peruse the article in its entirety for some food for thought.  I have come to realize that growth happens in the midst of conflict and because of that understanding I take moments and viewpoints like this as a challenge to grow personally, in my understanding of myself and my God.  I can only hope that when those in our world take stock of the believers around them they are able to see past the arrogance and hear the still, small voice of One greater than all this, who wishes for nothing more than to love them.