WE WERE NEVER CALLED TO BE GOOD GIRLS

There is something we must settle.

We were not created merely to be good girls.

Good girls who keep the peace.
Good girls who never ask difficult questions.
Good girls who make everyone comfortable.
Good girls who obey without understanding.
Good girls who know how to sit quietly, smile sweetly, serve faithfully, and never disturb the order of things.

No.

God did not call women to a life of harmlessness.

He called us to courage.

To conviction.

To obedience.

To strength.

To influence.

And, whether we like the language or not, He called us to war.

Not war against people.

Our battle is not against flesh and blood, Scripture tells us, but against spiritual forces of darkness (Ephesians 6:12).

So perhaps we have misunderstood what it means to be a godly woman.

We have sometimes confused gentleness with weakness.

Submission with silence.

Kindness with passivity.

Peace with the absence of confrontation.

But Scripture does not present women as fragile ornaments placed carefully at the edges of God's story.

Look again.

Deborah judged Israel and went to war with Barak (Judges 4–5).

Esther stood before a king when silence could have cost her people their lives.

Jael drove a tent peg through the head of Sisera and delivered Israel from an enemy (Judges 4:21).

Abigail had the wisdom and courage to intervene when a man's foolishness was about to bring destruction upon her household (1 Samuel 25).

The woman of Proverbs 31 is not sitting around waiting for life to happen to her.

She buys land.

She plants.

She trades.

She works.

She strengthens her household.

She opens her mouth with wisdom.

She looks at the future without fear.

“She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she can laugh at the days to come.”
— Proverbs 31:25

That does not sound like a woman merely trying to be good.

It sounds like a woman who knows who she is.

Good Is Not the Goal

Let me say something that may make some of us uncomfortable:

Being a good woman is not the highest calling God has placed upon your life.

You can be good and still be afraid.

You can be good and still be passive.

You can be good and still be undiscerning.

You can be good and still never develop the gift God placed inside you.

You can be good and still spend your entire life asking permission to become who God created you to be.

And that is not what we are after.

We are not raising women who merely know how to behave.

We are raising women who know Christ.

There is a difference.

Because Christianity is not simply a code of conduct.

It is a relationship with Jesus that transforms the woman underneath the behaviour.

We do not want women who merely know how to look Christian.

We want women who know God deeply enough to recognise His voice.

Women who can distinguish conviction from condemnation.

Truth from tradition.

Calling from applause.

Obedience from people-pleasing.

Because a woman who does not know what she believes will eventually borrow someone else's convictions.

And a woman who does not know who she is will spend her life allowing other people to name her.

There Is a Warrior in Her

Scripture says, “The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.” (Exodus 15:3)

And Psalm 144:1 declares:

“Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.”

There is a dimension of following God that requires battle.

Battle against fear.

Battle against compromise.

Battle against deception.

Battle against discouragement.

Battle against the temptation to become smaller than your calling because being small makes everyone else comfortable.

And some battles are not dramatic.

Sometimes the battle is waking up and doing the work when nobody applauds.

Sometimes it is refusing the relationship that looks attractive but is destroying your discernment.

Sometimes it is saying no when everybody around you says yes.

Sometimes it is forgiving.

Sometimes it is leaving.

Sometimes it is staying.

Sometimes it is beginning again after failure.

Sometimes it is becoming disciplined enough to develop the very gift you have been asking God to bless.

Warriors are not women who are always loud.

Some of the fiercest women in Scripture were discerning before they were demonstrative.

A warrior knows when to speak.

And she knows when silence is wiser.

She knows what deserves her energy.

She knows what must be confronted.

She knows what must be surrendered.

She knows that not every battle is hers to fight.

But when God gives her a battle, she does not run simply because it is difficult.

Anointing Is Not an Excuse

We must teach our daughters this.

Anointing is not a substitute for preparation.

Faith does not excuse indiscipline.

Calling does not eliminate responsibility.

And prayer does not absolve us from doing the work.

David was anointed long before he sat on the throne.

Joseph received dreams long before he governed Egypt.

Esther had courage, but she also prepared before approaching the king.

The woman of Proverbs 31 did not merely pray about her household.

She worked.

She considered a field and bought it.

She planted.

She traded.

She made clothing.

She strengthened her family.

Her faith had hands.

Her wisdom had movement.

Her conviction produced action.

That is the kind of woman we want to raise.

A woman who can pray and plan.

Believe and build.

Hear God and study.

Receive a calling and develop the capacity to carry it.

Because potential is a beautiful thing.

But potential left undeveloped is still unfinished business.

We Must Teach Women to Think

I want women who think deeply.

Women who are not frightened by questions.

Women who know that asking “Why?” does not mean they have lost their faith.

Women who can examine tradition without automatically calling it truth.

Women who can disagree without becoming disrespectful.

Women who can listen without surrendering discernment.

Women who can change their minds when truth requires it.

Women who can stand alone when standing alone is necessary.

The Bible does not ask us to switch off our minds in order to follow God.

Romans 12:2 tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

That means God cares about what we think.

How we reason.

How we discern.

How we understand.

How we see the world.

A woman with a renewed mind is difficult to manipulate.

She does not follow every voice.

She does not believe every trend.

She does not confuse popularity with truth.

She searches.

She tests.

She discerns.

And then she moves.

We Are Raising Women Who Can Carry Something

Because what God places inside a woman was never intended to end with her.

Her wisdom can raise a generation.

Her courage can open a door another woman was too afraid to approach.

Her obedience can alter the direction of a family.

Her work can become a legacy.

Her voice can give language to what others could only feel.

Her generosity can change a life.

Her leadership can create opportunities for people who come after her.

Her faith can become an inheritance.

Look at Timothy.

Paul reminds him that the faith which now lives in him first lived in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice (2 Timothy 1:5).

Think about that.

A woman's faith can travel through generations.

What you cultivate in yourself may become part of what your children inherit.

That is why becoming matters.

We are not simply raising women for themselves.

We are raising women whose lives will become instructions for someone else.

The Armour Was Never Just for Men

Ephesians 6 tells us to put on the whole armour of God.

The instruction is not gendered.

Take up the shield of faith.

Put on the breastplate of righteousness.

Wear the belt of truth.

Carry the sword of the Spirit.

Put on the helmet of salvation.

Stand.

Notice the language.

Stand.

Not shrink.

Not disappear.

Not surrender.

Stand.

There will be days when your faith is tested.

Days when your integrity costs you something.

Days when obedience makes you unpopular.

Days when you have to choose between fitting in and remaining faithful.

Those days will reveal what you are made of.

And I want women prepared for those days.

Not terrified of them.

Prepared.

So, What Kind of Woman Are We Raising?

Not a woman who is merely pleasant.

A woman with conviction.

Not a woman who is merely obedient to people.

A woman who is obedient to God.

Not a woman who is merely gifted.

A woman who has developed her gifts.

Not a woman who is merely ambitious.

A woman whose ambition has been surrendered to purpose.

Not a woman who is merely strong.

A woman who knows when strength means fighting and when strength means yielding.

Not a woman who needs to be seen.

A woman who knows that obedience matters even when nobody sees.

Not a woman who simply occupies her generation.

A woman who helps shape it.

Because there is a world waiting for what God has placed inside you.

And you cannot give the world what you have buried.

So rise.

Rise from fear.

Rise from insecurity.

Rise from the need for everyone's approval.

Rise from the belief that being a good girl is enough.

Rise from the habit of apologising for the strength God is developing in you.

Rise from the comfort of potential.

Rise into preparation.

Rise into wisdom.

Rise into courage.

Rise into discipline.

Rise into purpose.

Rise into the woman God is calling you to become.

Because the world does not need another woman who knows how to perform goodness while hiding her God-given fire.

It needs women who know Christ deeply, think clearly, stand firmly, love fiercely, build faithfully, and fight the battles that God has entrusted to them.

Women who understand that gentleness and strength can live in the same body.

That wisdom can have a backbone.

That holiness does not require smallness.

That femininity is not weakness.

That submission to God can produce extraordinary courage.

And that the woman who kneels before God can stand before kings.

We were never called merely to be good girls.

We were called to become women of God.

Women of conviction.

Women of wisdom.

Women of courage.

Women of influence.

Women who know when to kneel.
Women who know when to stand.
Women who know when to speak.
Women who know when to fight.

Women who know that their lives are not only about what God can do through them today.

They are also about who will become stronger because they lived faithfully.

That is the woman we are raising.

That is the woman we are becoming.

Oh Woman, Arise.