Given the surprising (and apparently sudden) changes in what our country is now considering to be “moral” government-approved behavior, I thought it was time for a pep talk. Most of you all are probably a lot like me. It hasn’t been difficult to live like a Christian woman even in a culture that has been gradually drifting away from its Christian foundation. But the sudden lurch of this past week’s Supreme Court decision has certainly been a wake-up call.

It may be tempting to worry or fret about what kind of place our grandchildren are going to inherit. This is no longer the country my parents and grandparents grew up in. Far from it! I don’t think I even knew sodomy existed until I was in high-school, and then I could hardly believe it. Seriously?

It’s crucial that Christian women, no matter what our calling, process these things faithfully, with a godly courage. So I’ve come up with a short list of things to keep us focused. And it turns out, these are all the things we are already supposed to be doing. God is always looking for faithfulness, not some new idea of our own.

1. First of all, the Lord God is our Maker and He absolutely controls all His creation. Even the decisions of court justices. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Prov. 21:1). So we can be confident that He is doing this for us, not to us.

2. We are to stay at our posts. He has given us a host of duties, so we should work hard at them as always. Like Daniel who kept on praying with the windows open, even when it was against the law, we should not draw back in fear. “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22).

3. More than ever, we need to affirm that we believe everything the Bible says about marriage. This means we don’t shy away from Bible words like submit, obey, or head. Or husband and wife, male and female. We should love marriage the way God designed and defined it.  Period.

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing” (Eph. 5:22-24). We don’t need to apologize for the Bible. This is God’s Word. We didn’t make this stuff up.

4. Children are a blessing from the Lord. They are a heritage and His reward (Prov. 127:3). We must bring these little ones up in the instruction of the Lord. It’s more important than ever that we do not hand our inheritance over to be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the state. It doesn’t matter how much it costs to educate your children in a God-honoring way. God will provide. About twenty years ago an angry lesbian yelled at us, “Ten years and your children are ours!” She didn’t stay around for our response which was of course, “Not our kids.” Our children did not receive an “education” from the unbelieving state, where God is considered irrelevant. We started a Christian school so we could educate our children in a God-centered, God-glorifying way. This is something to gladly sacrifice for.

5. Women should love domesticity and not let the secularist agenda press them into its mold. Marriage to a godly man and bringing up children in a Christ-centered home is still a high calling. This is still true for those Christian women who are not married. They can still love domesticity and honor marriage,  homemaking, and child-rearing. The world does not define who we are and what we are for. God’s Word defines us. We are made to glorify Him, and when we are in joyful submission to Him, we are a happy people. The world does not have this kind of blessedness to offer.

6. The Lord’s Day should be honored in every family, with worship as the high point of the week. This is the foundation day. Be eager to get to church. Pray for the service. Get your family ready. Ask God to bless it. This is our highest calling: worshiping God as His obedient servants. This is far more potent in overthrowing God’s enemies than we realize. It’s not about protesting and signing petitions (though those things might be fine in their way). As we worship God rightly, His kingdom spreads.

7. In all these things, we are simply doing what we have been told. And it turns out that’s all we need to do. We should pray for courage to make our faith known at every opportunity. We must continue to talk freely about our Lord Jesus Christ and the good news of His Gospel. This is simply letting our light shine.  And the darker our world gets, the more the  light is needed! So don’t be shy. Shine it! And may God bless the fruit of our hands.

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