Women of God
In a changing world, Christian women
hold on to an unchanging hand: God's hand.
STRUGGLES AS WOMEN IN FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
                                      by Marilyn LaStrape

God created the first relationship when He said to Christ and the Holy Spirit; “Let Us make man in Our
image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air,
and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God
created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it…’”
(Genesis 1:26-28a) Relationship – what does the word mean? It means the association, connection, or
affiliation with another person or persons.

God created the family and instituted the first marriage bond when He created man and woman. God said,
“It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” (Genesis 2:18) “And
the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed
up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and
He brought her to the man.” (Genesis 2:21-22)

We can see from the earliest existence of the human race marriage and family was vitally important to
God! This relationship of family began with us being born to our mothers and fathers; and in some unions
siblings were born into that family relationship. We all have extended families to one degree or another
and like any other association, connection, or affiliation, there are struggles to be faced and dealt with.

Because of our emotional makeup, we as women perhaps struggle more with lost and wayward family
members than men. We as mothers agonize over a child who is not a Christian or one who is no longer
faithful! There is a song with the lyrics, “Your mother loves her children all the time.” That being said
because of that love, we can and often do shed tears of grief when they are not in a covenant relationship
with God. We continue to endure when we realize that ultimately each of us will be personally accountable
to God for our decisions and actions!

Another of those struggles that can be so difficult and emotionally draining is interacting with family
members who are not members of the Lord’s church. We are limited in what we can say, what we can do,
and where we can go because we must let Christ be seen in us at all times. We are keenly aware of the
denominational doctrine they have embraced. Perhaps the hardest part to deal with is them not seeing
anything wrong with what they believe or why they believe the way they do because after all, they are
“good people” and God is not going to condemn any “good” people to hell. This may be the biggest lie
Satan has told and is telling to the masses of society since he lied to Eve in the garden! Some also believe
that we all serve the same God just in different ways and we are all going to heaven. In some relationships
they don’t claim any allegiance to God at all.

Still another struggle with family members is dealing with those who were once faithful, obedient,
submissive members of the church and are now in the far country of sin. They can be more difficult to deal
with than those who have not obeyed the gospel because of their knowledge of the truth! Since they
cannot rip that knowledge of divine truth from their minds, they use all of their mental energies to suppress
that truth, to ignore that truth, and to mock that truth!

How can we endure in these most distressing family relationships? We continue to pray and keep the faith
and asked to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Paul said,
“And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility
correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know
the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken
captive by him to do his will.” (II Timothy 2:24-26).
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