Christian women needs to wake up!

Many people say that Sweden needs a revival, and I agree, Sweden is seen as a christian country but we have lost a lot in that sense. But I guess more or less the whole world is in the need of an awakening/revival. Christianity generally is in a state of slumber today. David Wilkerson went to Sweden a couple of decades ago and prophesied about apathy, and that's exactly where we are at today. We have ended up in an apathetic state that is incredibly dangerous for Christianity itself, who can fight if you are being apathetic? Who stands up for the Bible and who stands up for their faith when they are apathetic?

Well, of course there are those who still do it, but there are fewer who does it. Sweden

needs an awakening, but above all, Christian women needs to wake up! You know that I started little cup of blessing as an outlet for my faith, I wanted to share what I've seen, heard and conclusions I've come to through my own walk with the Lord. During these years, I have encountered many different kind of opinions, opinions that have been both positive and negative, but what I still see generally in our country makes me a little worried as there are so many women today who focus more on their career, their appearance and their own desires than on the family, their husband and their relationship with God.

Since this is a place for women, I am going to focus on that particular part today, there are of course men who also need to wake up and change their lives but my text today is directed to you who are a woman.

Many women have a more or less the need for control, they simply want to keep everything under their headship. However, this need for control can often grow so large that it affects our husband and perhaps even others outside the family. This need for control is something that, in an appropriate amount, is actually good for us, it helps us at home to be able to handle many different things at the same time and it also helps us in other ways. But when it starts to escalate to the point where we want to start controlling our husband, for example, then we are walking on thin ice. Whether it is visible control or manipulative control is less important, but many times we can end up completely controlling the man because we are so afraid of losing that control. Here we need to spend time in prayer and in the Bible to really pay attention so that we do not become manic under this need for control. Many times, this desire for control can unfortunately also lead to conflicts and disputes between family members, in the church and in other places where you end up not being able to let go at all.

I think is very important to be very thoughtful about this matter, we women generally tend to get anxious, if the man somehow steps back from his role and we think he can't handle decision making or his responsibilities in the family, it is so easy, because of our need to control, to step into his place because we think we have the capacity to lead in a better way. Sometimes this may even be the case, but if we are to live according to the Bible where the man is the head, we cannot be there, taking his place all the time because we don't think he is up for the task. Instead, we should spend time in prayer, sometimes even fasting for our husband, so that God will guide him, give him wisdom to make wise decisions and lead the family in a biblical and good way. We need to help our husband through encouragement, respect and gentleness, not by taking his place, because how will he ever be able to be the man you actually want him to be if you don't let him?

If we want the men to be leaders, to stand up for the family and for their faith, then we need to leave room for them to grow in that areas as well, which sometimes means failure and problems on the road, but that's where we need to be patient and instead encourage and be a good help instead of taking over and show him "how it´s done".

Part two of the problems I see today is that many women don't even want to be in the home. Careers are appealing, kindergarten is convenient for satisfying their own dreams and goals, other men become more important than their husbands, and somewhere in this "hamster wheel", God has to be considered. How we spend our time matters. If we spend more time with other men than with our spouse, how will that affect our marriage? I'm not saying it's always a problem, but it has become a bit strange that women are eager to submit to their male boss, for example, but not to their own husband. We pray that God will lead us away from temptation, but if we constantly expose ourselves to that temptation, we put ourselves in a rather contradictory position. In fact, I don't think it is wise for men and women to work together for that very reason. It can give place to temptations and lustful looks (which in the Bible is explained as adultery in the heart) but it can also start a thinking process where you compare the men at work with your own husband and maybe start to get annoyed that your own husband is not behaving as "good" as the men at work. It may not always be the case, but many times this can unfortunately be a reason why many marriages falter and don't really work out or even ends up in a divorce.

If we go on with the career then. There is a lot to say about the topic, but I will try to keep it short. A woman's love for a career can often become almost as a sickness, sacrificing everything and more beyond to get one more step up the career ladder. You study and feel good and successful while your family is gradually forgotten or deprioritized. There's a certain drive in women that makes it hard to stop once you've started, the only thing that stops you is possibly hitting the famous "wall". I apologize if I sound harsh now, but I think that many times there is unfortunately a truth to this. As usual, this is generalized, of course there are women who enter the workforce and can handle it at an appropriate level but the question is whether it is really the right thing to do? If you have a family, my answer would be no, unless the family is dependent on your income of course, such situations also exist. But if you have a family, it is actually the family that should come first, not your own realization. If you are also a Christian and want your children to grow up based upon a Christian foundation, it is even more important to actually put your own goals aside and instead dedicate your life to taking care of your children and your family. I mentioned in the beginning that daycare was a convenient option and I still stand by that. Sometimes children are put in daycare (preschool) just because it's easy and convenient. It's easier to be in a workplace with other adults than to "die from yourself" and spend time looking after the children. We are taught that children need kindergarten to develop social skills and language development, but this is just another of society's lies to make mothers feel guilty about being at home, that they are not enough for their own children.

If you look back a little in time when more mothers were at home (at least here in Sweden) with their children, there was a completely different kind of social community out there , you visited each other more often, maybe organized sewing sessions, the children got to play with each other while a parent actually was present and the children got to learn how to socialize with both children and adults of different ages instead of just those of their own age who are "at the same level". Today there are not quite the same opportunities as most children are introduced to preschool (once again, here in Sweden specifically) after the age of one year and very few mothers are at home and available. However, there are usually other opportunities to teach children the social interaction and you can get quite enough of that even if the children do not grow up in kindergarten. Dare to believe that you as a mother are sufficient for your children, we do not need a pedagogical education to give the children a good upbringing, even if you have not had children before, you grow into it. I can absolutely be a witness to that, I had never even held a baby before we had our first child, I was 18 years old and completely inexperienced but it went just fine. From being terrified, it became the most obvious thing in the world, being a mother. You're not perfect but having a mother by the child's side is worth more than all the educational knowledge that kindergarten can ever offer.

Focusing on yourself has also become like a mantra in today's society, of course it is good to take care of yourself but not at a level where self-centeredness takes the focus from your family and from God. Since society has made a stressful life for women in the workplace, many try to seek out activities to get calm to even cope with their family and themselves, many times these activities are associated with different types of spirituality that Christians should not practice such as yoga and such so-called relaxing activities. Putting women in a stressful existence to then lure them into spirituality that corrupts, will lead women astray and many times it ends in some type of other kind of spirituality, demonic activities (yes, it happens!) or new age, where you are constantly looking for a peace that you cannot find. A peace that only God can give, a peace that comes by going back to an everyday life where God is the center of the home and the woman is the heart of the home. A home where the man leads and takes all the heavy responsibilities and battles, a home where the children are met by a warm embrace, a home where God can work and shape all individuals in harmony and in joy. A home that is well functioning and is built on a solid foundation.

If we are to have a so-called revival in our country, many changes need to take place, an awakening is urgent and very necessary, especially within Christianity, I think. That women take their calling seriously and take their home and family seriously, take their husbands seriously and actually take God seriously. That we as Christian women can actually show something different from what the world offers, to be able to show a life in true peace. I understand if this text can feel provocative because of how we are taught that it "should be", that the woman should break free from all the so-called women enslavement, which really means being where God has called us to be. A help to our husband and a mother in our home. If you don't have a husband or any children, you of course also have a calling, but that doesn't mean that you need to get stuck in society's hamster wheel and norms that lead us to a life in captivity instead of the freedom that God actually wants to give us through him and his ways.

I want to end by quoting the letter of James, chapter 4 verse 7.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Submitting to God helps us in the fight against the darkness and it is the key

for not only Christianity but especially for us women, submitting to the Lord, submitting to our husband, serving in gentleness and meekness. Christian women - wake up from the state of being lukewarm and being apathetic!