Barbara Millicent Roberts turned 50 last month. She’s a few years older than me, but from recent media appearances, I can tell she’s in much better shape. Ms. Roberts doesn’t show any signs of aging. Her skin is flawless. She has no wrinkles. No blemishes. No age spots. No loss of elasticity. As always, her makeup is perfectly applied–her hair is stylish and shiny.
Ms. Roberts weighs the same as she did twenty years ago. Her waist remains tiny, her legs long and slim. Her nails are always perfectly groomed. No backaches or bunions keep her from constantly wearing high heels. Clothes are crucial, and contributors to her extensive and fashionable wardrobe include world-class fashion designers such as Armani, Givenchy, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Dior, and Versace.
It’s not just her appearance that’s a source of envy. Barbara Roberts has a long and illustrious resume. She’s been a rock star, a professional athlete, an astronaut, a doctor, and a presidential candidate. She currently earns about $3.3 billion a year. And she’s popular, too. She’s had scores of friends, and has been romanced for decades by a handsome, long-time suitor. With her beauty, clothes, cars, houses, careers, and independence, Ms. Roberts is the epitome of fulfilled womanhood.
The problem is, she’s not a real woman. She’s a toy. You probably know her by her retail nickname, “Barbie.” And the image of womanhood she portrays is as fake as her plastic skin. It’s sad that the best vision of womanhood the world has to offer is built on artificial beauty, exaggerated sexuality, unfettered consumerism, fierce independence, and unrealistic expectations. Barbie’s image totally misses what true womanhood is all about.
God’s plan for manhood and womanhood existed from eternity past, before the foundation of the world. Scripture explains that He created us to display His glory (Isa. 43:6-7). That was His overarching purpose. Manhood, womanhood, and marriage display the glory of God’s marvelous plan–that Jesus Christ laid down His life as Husband to redeem and purify the Bride He loves (the Church). When God created male and female, He had the relationship of Christ and His Bride in mind. Men are to reflect the strength, love, and self-sacrifice of Christ. Women are to reflect the character, grace, and beauty of the Bride He redeemed.
The implications for womanhood are staggering. This places womanhood at the center of God’s ultimate purpose. It endows it with supernatural significance and meaning. It lifts it from a Barbie-Doll-type existence to a profound level of importance. Womanhood exists to display God’s masterpiece of redemption. Sisters, the vision of womanhood that modern culture entices us with is far too small. Barbie’s beauty is shallow, fleeting, and deceptive. But the beauty of Christ’s holy Bride is spectacular, eternal, and real. (Eph. 5:22-33)
Plastic Barbie or Eternal Bride . . . Which of these two visions of womanhood has captivated your heart?
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Thank God for Jesus...He has made everything beautiful in His time.
on Monday, April 6, 2009 at 10:13 am
on Monday, April 6, 2009 at 10:58 am
The truth has set me free! I am "free indeed" through Jesus.
on Monday, April 6, 2009 at 10:59 am
How true! The plastic Barbie's give little girls such a wrong impression of what they should look like. When our 3 daughters were younger, I discouraged any playing with Barbie's, with explanations that that they are not realistic and that God made each of us the way we are and that we are beautiful in Christ.
Also, I found this quote the other day and found it applicable to Paula Hendrick's post on "Do you pray in Jesus Name". Enjoy and be edified.
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." Hebrews 10:19.
In all true prayer great stress should be laid on the blood of Jesus; perhaps no evidence distinguishes a declension in the power and spirituality of prayer more strongly than an overlooking of this. Where the atoning blood is kept out of view, not recognized, not pleaded, not made the grand plea, there is a deficiency of power in prayer. Words are nothing, fluency of expression nothing, niceties of language and brilliancy of thought nothing, and even apparent fervor nothing, where the blood of Christ- the new and the living way of access to God, the grand plea that moves Omnipotence, that gives admission within the holy of holies- is slighted, undervalued, and not made the groundwork of every petition. Oh, how much is this overlooked in our prayers, how is the atoning blood of Immanuel slighted! How little mention we hear of it in the sanctuary, in the pulpit, in the social circle! whereas it is this that makes prayer what it is with God. All prayer is acceptable with God, and only so, as it comes up perfumed with the blood of Christ; all prayer is answered as it urges the blood of Christ as its plea; it is the blood of Christ that satisfies justice, and meets all the demands of the law against us; it is the blood of Christ that purchases and brings down every blessing into the soul; it is the blood of Christ that sues for the fulfilment of His last will and testament, every precious legacy of which comes to us solely on account of His death; this it is, too, that gives us boldness at the throne of grace. How can a poor sinner dare approach with out this? How can he look up, how can he ask, how can he present himself before a holy God, but as he brings in the hand of faith the precious blood of Jesus? Outside of Christ, God can hold no communication with us; all communion is suspended, every avenue of approach is closed, all blessing is withheld. God has crowned His dearly beloved Son, and He will have us crown Him too; and never do we place a brighter crown upon His blessed head, than when we plead His finished righteousness as the ground of our acceptance, and His atoning blood as our great argument for the bestowment of all blessing with God. If, then, dear reader, you feel yourself to be a poor, vile, unholy sinner; if a backslider, whose feet have wandered from the Lord, in whose soul the spirit of prayer has declined, and yet still feel some secret longing to return, and dare not, because so vile, so unholy, so backsliding; yet you may return, "having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." Come, for the blood of Jesus pleads; return, for the blood of Christ gives you a welcome. "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
Excerpt from 'Morning Thoughts', Octavius Winslow MARCH 30. http://gracegems.org/WINSLOW/MARCH.htm
on Monday, April 6, 2009 at 12:40 pm
on Monday, April 6, 2009 at 1:35 pm
on Monday, April 6, 2009 at 7:44 pm
on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 10:57 am
It's likely in your print settings/print setup for web . . . If you're attempting to print the page from your browser, you'll need to make sure it's printing the whole page, not just the visible page. Better yet, just copy the article into Word and print that instead.
Hope that helps!
on Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 10:24 am
on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 4:27 pm
I chased that shallow dream my entire young adult life; never to find it, never to be satisfied, never to be whole. It was only when I quit shoving brand name handbags, leather shoes, and high end accessories IN that I was actually able to fill that yearning crevasse with what it was designed for, what I was designed for; Jesus Christ, in His fullness. Jesus Christ is Lord now. He was Savior for many years, but orders my every step today. I still have many walls to remove and belief systems to strip away as I daily die and take captive every thought to Christ. But my Hope is in Him and I have faith knowing He will bring beauty from ashes and that He is faithful to complete the work He began in me.
I praise GOD with you and for you Ladies! Let's run the race as He would have us to!
on Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 2:22 pm