It's Not A Competition

Yesterday we had a men's service. The things spoken were explosive. While listening, I wondered why things were the way they were when it came to gender. I was bothered by how it's almost impossible to praise one gender without seemingly devaluing the other. Why does one have to be praised at the expense of another? Why when addressing one you have to simultaneously mention the other so it doesn't seem you don't appreciate it?
The only answer I could think of is insecurities or a low self esteem as a result of little understanding of self.

Women should be able to absorb all truth about men without feeling that it has a demeaning reflection on them, the same with men; it's not a competition. Both genders exist to compliment each another, not compete with one another. I came across a phrase not to long ago that said something along the lines of: women shouldn't strive to do everything a man can do because they can do everything a man can't do. Simple but powerful. Has you thinking how we women have abandoned and left unexplored the things only we are capable of doing in pursuit of things men do best. Yes, that's another truth we need to swallow, there are things that the other gender is better at. It's when we accept such truth that we'll live together in harmony.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you shouldn't pursue your dream just because it's mostly done by men, I'm saying pursue it out of passion not out of trying to prove a point. I was touched by the photo of the female-only crew of the Ethiopian airlines that made the waves recently. A few days ago, women voted for the first time in another country. It's great progress that women achieve such, it enhances their lives. But this doing should remain just about them and not their counterparts. My preaching should never be about making a point and increasing the percentage of female preachers, it should be because that's what I'm called to do. And I should remember that God called me with all my femininity, so I shouldn't seek to preach as other male preachers preach, I should be true to myself.

I am glad God made this balance because I just can't imagine what a world influenced by one gender would be like. It's a universal joke that if women were presidents we wouldn't have wars, just countries not talking to each other. I'm glad that God made men the analytical strategic weirdos that they are. I hate thinking about something for too long, because then I just wont do it since I'll probably find more wrong about it than right. I like that they think straight, whereas in we think in circles. And it's not a bad thing, both are good. Think straight for too long and you'll never stop to smell the roses, think in circles nonstop and you'll never get where you're going. It's beautiful to see how the Master of diversity engineered these two beings.

We need to appreciate our differences, not make war over them. Sure it's not always nice or easy, but life makes much more sense when we do. It's also more funnier. We laugh almost every day in this house because the gender ratio is 4:1. My poor father is forever trying to make us understand how he sees things, forever accusing us of being too emotional, too impatient, too this, too that. And in all his complaining, he'll never change us, we are what we are. He's starting to get it that he just needs to embrace us, just as we are. That's the only way he'll get anything out of us because we definitely don't play nice when he's busy pin pointing what's 'wrongly wired' in us.

So love and embrace you, then love and embrace the other, you'll laugh more than you cry, you'll celebrate the difference instead of fighting over it.