Our Many Hats

As women of Christ, we wear many different hats every single day. And I’m not saying that we take off one hat and then slap on another. We literally seem to wake up every morning, stack our “hats” on top of one another, and somehow, we’re expected to balance them, effortlessly. We wear the “wife hat”, the “mom hat”, the “friend hat”, the “co-worker” hat, the “daughter hat”, the “sister hat”….the list goes on and on. Complicate the wearing of these hats even more by adding the word “godly” in front of each one. I don’t know about you, but I am sometimes barely hanging on by the end of the day. God created us for a reason, though. We have the unique ability to balance life’s tasks and make it seem effortless to the outside world (even though inside we can feel totally overwhelmed). He created us strong and resilient. However, just because we are equipped to be super women, doesn’t mean that we have to keep piling on non-essential hats. For instance, I had a conversation with a sister-in-Christ a few weeks ago about the guilt that is planted in our minds when we don’t sign up for every single extracurricular or scheduled event. We sometimes feel like we have to commit to all of the meetings, RSVP to all of the events and be a part of all of the committees in order to do our part as a Christian woman. Sometimes we allow other people’s ideas of what makes a Christian woman godly spark insecurity in ourselves. I believe that this way of thinking is detrimental to the Christian woman and we need to stop allowing the opinions of others to become the standard that we live by. The only standard that we are to esteem is that of the Lord. We can clearly see that standard in the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25:14-30. God created us with a unique set of skills that we are to use for the upbringing of his kingdom. He does not say that we must be in the limelight all of the time. He does not require us to volunteer to be the head of every single affair that is on the calendar. What He does require is that we use our God-given talents as we submit our lives to Him (1 Peter 4:10-11). What He does desire from us is that we study to show ourselves approved (2 Timothy 2:15). What He wants from us is exuberant zeal for knowledge and obedience to His Word (Romans 12:11; John 14:15). As Christian women, we have to learn to PROTECT OUR PEACE. Guard it like the gift from God that it is (Philippians 4:7). I am almost certain that God cares less about the number of things we take on to please Him and more interested in the quality of our hearts when we are engaging in each one. Quality always trumps quantity. We must learn that as godly women, we must not pile on all of the world’s ideals of who we are to be, and instead make a conscious effort not to stifle our talents and to live by God’s standard of who we should be.