Every day, Mayra Beltran de Ortiz used to leave her plush office and work out on exercise machines. It wasn’t because she was trying to stay in shape. Mayra made many decisions based on what other people would think, including her daily exercise routine.
She was vice president of one of the fastest-growing health clubs in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic. As an executive at the health club, she was obligated to set a good example for the 200 employees she managed.
Mayra remembers what her priorities were like at that time: “If you had asked me what a true woman was, I would have said a true woman was someone just like me—successful and independent. A lot of women admired me. I could travel. I could buy the clothes I wanted. I felt like I had everything under control.”
Mayra felt secure since she no longer needed her husband’s financial support, remembering, “I had my own income and checking account.” She also felt pride that her home life felt under control. “I thought I was a true woman because my kids were successful.” In order to keep the feeling of control, Mayra treated her husband like one of her employees, demanding her ways at home.
In 2008, Mayra was invited to Revive Our Hearts’ True Woman ’08 Conference. She recalls, “I had been to a lot of conferences for my job at the health club, but this was so different. I had never been to a conference where women were seeking the Lord together.
“I was convicted that my job had become an idol. I was not honoring God by putting my trust in my job and trying to control my husband. I said, ‘I don’t want what I am. I am intoxicated. My job is like a drug. God is my provider, not my job.’”
As soon as she got home, she resigned. This family watched God immediately provide through an increase in Federico’s responsibilities. Mayra now devotes time to counseling other women and helping to translate Revive Our Hearts into Spanish.
“For so many years we were seeking so many things,” she says. “We were seeking a better life. We were seeking money and success. I was seeking respect. I was seeking control. Through all the things we’ve been through, I have discovered that nothing satisfies except for knowing God. I want to spend the rest of my life seeking Him.”
The Revive Our Hearts radio and video team is currently working on a longer version of Mayra’s story. At one point, dangerous moneylenders were threatening her husband’s life. She came home one day to discover he was near death after ingesting a dangerous amount of rat poison. When our team unveils the story this fall at the True Woman ’12 Conference, find out how God used these dramatic events as Mayra learned to be seeking Him.
Leave a Comment:
We love hearing from you, and will post your comment as long as it is appropriate, and is written in a tone that is encouraging, edifying, and loving to others. Even then, know that the following comments do not necessarily reflect the views of Revive Our Hearts.
Comments
on Monday, June 18, 2012 at 7:48 am
on Monday, June 18, 2012 at 11:16 am
on Monday, June 18, 2012 at 1:24 pm
Indeed, as you well know, it is possible to be a stay-at-home mom and be a true woman. It is possible to be a woman with a job and be a true woman. The concern is not a job or no job, but following God with all your heart and finding contentment in doing so. It is a heart issue. Thank you for your comments and for letting us know of your desire to hear a story with a different focus.
God bless you, Tara!
on Monday, June 18, 2012 at 3:38 pm
on Monday, June 18, 2012 at 6:46 pm
your job like that. I praise the Lord for your tender and teachable heart that you had during the conference in order to respond as you did. May the Lord bless you as you counsel other women and translate for ROH!
Thank you also, Sarah, for your thoughtful response to
Tara as well!
Blessings,
Arlene
on Monday, June 18, 2012 at 6:58 pm
on Monday, June 18, 2012 at 9:06 pm
on Tuesday, June 19, 2012 at 9:28 am
Just like Mayra, my wife also went through a life-changing experience when at TW-2010, and we felt that it was in the Lord's best interest to quit her high-end job at a leading law firm: the blessings from that decision have been evident, as my wife has been able to submit herself in order to affirm my spiritual role as leader of our home. I can't be more grateful for that and pray God to be the man she deserves everyday.
on Tuesday, June 19, 2012 at 9:21 pm
on Wednesday, June 20, 2012 at 3:34 pm
Again I don't want to come across as critical and, being 17, I have no experience of being married. I'm trying to work these things out in my mind!
on Friday, June 22, 2012 at 10:43 am
God values man and woman equally, but created them with different roles. In their book, "True Woman 101", Nancy DeMoss and Mary Kassian define those roles. You would find their book most interesting, Megan, as you seek to set a foundation of truth in your thinking. Consider these excerpts from the book in answer to your questions:
“God gave men a responsibility to work that is unique to what it means to be a man. Work is foundational to manhood in a way that it isn’t foundational to womanhood.
Don’t get me wrong. That’s not to say that women don’t work, or can’t work, or don’t want to work, or should never work outside the home. That’s nonsense, and not at all what the Bible teaches. Right up front, let’s be clear about that! However, it does mean that male and female are different. As part of our God-created “wiring,” man is connected to “work” in a way woman is not; and woman is connected to home and relationships in a way man is not. Obviously, that doesn’t mean that a woman is incapable of working, or that a man is incapable of creating a home and relating, or that they do not ever do these things. It just means that God created male and female with differing natural ‘bents’ and spheres of responsibility. The male was created with a unique responsibility to work to provide for the family, and the female was created with a unique responsibility to nest and to nurture family relationship.”
A few paragraphs later, they add: “The ‘work’ that God assigned to man wasn’t about the man earning money to selfishly spend on the latest gadget, toy or video game. It wasn’t about the man gaining power. It wasn’t about him gaining prestige. It wasn’t so the man could self-actualize. No. God wanted man to work selflessly on behalf of his family. He commissioned the man to use his strength to serve their needs, a role Scripture affirms in passages such as 1 Timothy 5:8. Being a ‘provider’—physically, spiritually, and in other ways—is foundational to manhood. Working to provide for others (especially those in his family) is at the core of what it means to be a man.”
And then in speaking to the charge to men in Ephesians 5: “Man is accountable to God to nourish (provide) and cherish (protect) those in his sphere of responsibility. His primary responsibility is toward his wife. But the charge also extends, in a general way, to the attitude men ought to have toward all women. It is part and parcel of their distinctive, God-created makeup. Being a protector and provider is at the core of what it means to be a man.”
Nancy DeMoss speaks to Proverbs 31:14-15 in the series “The Counter-cultural Woman” at: http://www.reviveourhearts.com/radio/revive-our-hearts/no-mundane-tasks/. At the bottom of this page is a list of of the programs in this series that you might be interested in.
We appreciate your post and the spirit with which you have written. God bless you, Megan! May His grace and peace be multiplied in your life (2 Pet. 1:2)!
on Monday, June 25, 2012 at 3:20 pm
on Sunday, July 1, 2012 at 7:04 am