The Woman who Abides

I saw the most wonderful post on Facebook yesterday. It shows the contrast between what we do when we choose to be super woman and what we do when we choose to be an abiding woman. Such true stuff. As I read over the list countless times yesterday, I was having a hard time getting past the first statement. Super woman does. Abiding woman is.


My favorite verse in the Bible is Psalm 46:10. Essentially it says that we are to be still and know. Pretty simple. The definition for abide is to wait for; to remain; to endure without yielding; to live or to dwell in a place. It sounds a lot like being still. But in order to abide in something not only must we be still, we must know that we can trust the place we have chosen to abide in.


As women we instinctively do. And as moms we feel like that if we don't do then it won't get done. God wired us that way. But we get caught up in ourselves sometimes as we go about doing. We think that we are the only ones that can do it right. That if it is broken then we are called to fix it. If our children or our husband aren't doing what we think they should be doing then they are wrong. Our perspective of working our way out of a situation or into the solution can spin us out of control.


When we begin to realize that remaining in Him is the only way we can truly be at peace, then we think and live and act out of a different place. We aren't as worried about pleasing others as we are about pleasing God. We don't work out of our own agenda because we are letting the Spirit be our guide. 


I received a text yesterday from a friend who said she was in the emergency room with her son. She thought it was his appendix but they were still running tests. She asked me to pray and I did. A few hours later she texted me back and said they were headed into surgery and could I please pray again. I immediately texted her and asked if she was okay and if she needed anything. She sent back this text. "We are good! At total peace because I know that he is in God's hands." She was abiding.


I have spent a lot of years doing. Trying to do the right thing. Trying to look the right way. Trying to be the best mom. Trying to be a good wife. Trying to make sure my children were happy. Trying to be a good friend. Trying to fix the situations around me. Trying to make sure that all the plates kept spinning. All it did was make me tired. 


But there is a better way. It is much easier. It will bring us much needed rest. And in the end, it will bring us the results we are looking for. We don't need to be a woman that does. We need to be a woman that is. That is on our knees for our children and our husbands. That is in His word looking for the answers. That is a friend who prays before we offer advice. That is someone who knows Who we belong to. That is a person that lives in the Peace that passes all understanding. That is a woman who can just be still and know.

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you,

 you will ask what you desire, 

and it shall be done for you."

 John 15:7