warrior chick

"Put on your sword, powerful warrior...
Win the victory for what is true and right.
Your power will do amazing things."
Psalm 45:3-4

I'm sure many of you have read about the Proverbs 31 woman. If you read through it too quickly, you may interpret this "virtuous woman" as being too quiet, weak, wimpy. You know, one of those ladies who sews, cooks, knits, and gets the laundry washed and folded all in one day. The first few times I read through this chapter, I had a really difficult time relating to this woman. I would close my Bible feeling like more of a failure.

Holly Wagner paints a much clearer picture of this Proverbs 31 woman. Do you know what the word virtuous means? The actual definition for virtuous is: "a force on the earth consisting of three things: people, means, and resource."

Whoa! My whole world turned upside down! This woman isn't sitting on a stool in the kitchen, crocheting baby blankets, she's a warrior! A force to be reckoned with! Warriors ride on triumphantly for the cause of truth, mercy, and justice. We are working for a cause bigger than ourselves!

So, here we are, princess warriors! Move over, Zena, God's Chicks are taking over!

The Warrior Princess has many qualities that make her a good soldier:

1 - She has COURAGE - too many of us hold on to our fear. What good does fear do for you? The answer is easy! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Let me tell you sister, I am famous for fears. I am plagued with hearing noises in my house. It is so bad that I wake up nearly every night hearing the sounds of someone breaking into my home. I have not slept soundly in about 5 years. I have heard gun shots, a car crashing into our house, and someone drilling a hole through our door so they can unlock it and let themselves in. It sounds ridiculous, and I'm fine all day long, but as soon as all of the lights are out, I struggle. It seems to be getting better. When I wake up, I immediately begin to pray. What else can I do? I ask for God's protection and peace. Although I'm still waking up, my Lord is so faithful. He calms my fears and allows me to fall back asleep! I know that I need to blast through this fear, because if I succumb to it, the pit will just get deeper, and my fears will begin to consume my entire life. Plus, the fears that I carry with me will begin to affect my daughter. And believe me, I want more for her than what I fear.

Don't misunderstand what I am saying. It's okay to be scared. But, when your fear begins to paralyze you and prevent you from pursuing and fulfilling God's purpose in your life, then it's a problem. Some of our very favorite Bible ladies were afraid. Look at Deborah and Esther. The difference is that these ladies did not become consumed by their fears. They ROSE above their fears in order to do great things!

"She gets up while it is still dark" ~Proverbs 31:15

To "get up" is to "rise". I always translated this verse very literally. "Get up early. Get up before the sun." However, Holly challenges us to look at this verse a little closer.

"Rise while it's dark." She challenges her readers to understand that dark is not necessarily referring to the time before the sun comes up, but instead to see it as "dark times". When you are suffering or are afraid, RISE out of the darkness! That gives me hope and freedom!

2 - She offers forgiveness - Hmm, who just felt the conviction? I don't know about you, but I try really hard to be a forgiver, but I know that there are certain areas that I just want to hang onto! I feel vindicated by refusing to forgive. And I call myself one of God's Chicks. I assure you all, I am working really hard on searching my heart for places where I need to forgive. I was really struggling to forgive a family member for the past year. My heart was so heavy, and I wasn't able to be myself. I wasn't hurting this other person, only myself. After I finally said to myself, "ENOUGH! Get over it. Move on. Forgive and move forward," I feel so good. Back to my old self. I really felt as though such a heavy burden was lifted right off of my shoulders!

The kicker about forgiveness is that you will rarely, if ever, feel like forgiving. You really have to WILL yourself to forgive. It's not natural for us to want to offer forgiveness to those who have hurt us or hurt someone that we love. But, we are commanded to forgive. Colassians 3:13 says, "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." There it is. Your relationships will grow on forgiveness not perfection. All of us, at one time or another, will require forgiveness because we operate in the flesh.

I will tell you, be cautious about who you open yourself up to. I'm sure most of you have learned this lesson already, but there are certain people who can not be trusted with your personal business. This doesn't mean that you can't be friendly with these people, but you must be careful not to share too much. You need to learn from your mistakes. You can't blame others for the mistake that you made, no matter how much it hurt you. This is where you're going to have to WILL yourself to forgive this person and move on. You need to set boundaries for yourself so that you do not let this happen again. However, an unhealthy boundary is to close yourself off completely. You need to have people that you can confide in. I have three close friends that I can share almost anything with. I have a mom who is amazing. And I have a wonderful husband who is like Fort Knox! Once you tell him something, he locks it up in a vault, never to be discussed with anyone else. He still refuses to tell me that Party Chick is pregnant with the child that she birthed 5 years ago, because he never got the go ahead from her husband to let anyone know that they were expecting. A little extreme, but I also know that he is safe.

3 - Stay at your post - Great soldiers stay where they were assigned. I just finished watching Band of Brothers. If you have not had the opportunity to watch this film, I highly recommend it! I have more appreciation for my grandpas and other WWII vets than ever before. One of the things that I took away from this movie is that these soldiers stayed put. If they were assigned to be in their fox holes, they stayed in their fox holes, no matter what was raining down upon them.

I have multiple posts. Wife Post, Mom Post, Daughter Post, Sister Post, Friend Post, etc. If my husband and I have an argument, I am not leaving my Wife Post with another man. I stand by my man! If my daughter does something completely out of line, I don't drop her off in Nebraska and leave her there just because she disappointed me. I try to use that mistake as a lesson. You must stay where you have been assigned!

4 - She is willing to die for the cause - Say what!?!?! Ladies, we are living in uncertain times. Now, more than ever, you must know what you believe, why you believe it, and know without a shadow of a doubt that you are right. We believe in a God who sent His son to save us from our sins. He was crucified for you. He suffered for you. He loves you! We've all heard John 3:16 over and over again, but listen to this. "God loved, God gave, We believe, We receive." Andy Stanley gave this version in a video that I watched in Sunday School a few weeks ago. He told us that God loved us. What do you do when you love someone? You give them something. God gave us Jesus. Why did he give us Jesus? So that we would believe in Him. Why do we need to believe in Him? So that we could receive Him into our hearts. So easy! And yet, we make it so hard.

I don't know what the future holds for any of us, but I do know that I would be willing to lay my life down for this cause. I would rather make that choice, than pervert my morals and values.

5 - A Warrior Chick respects authority - Gulp! Many of us live in the world of thought that our ego is sacred. Newsflash! It's not! Be the first one willing to lay aside your rights and desires in order to achieve the greater good, Wagner tells her readers. Say "sorry" first. Love your enemies. Tell the truth. Stay committed to the righteous path. Respect others! This is not easy, but can be done. You will gain more by respecting those in authority to you, than to try to undermine them.

6 - Know there will be battles to fight - Don't ignore differences in opinions. Handle the disagreements that come your way. And believe me, they will come during the most inopportune times. Swallow your pride and deal with the situation, but be respectful. I would venture to say that somewhere around 9 times out of 10, disagreements arise out of a tiny misunderstanding. For my husband and me, it's usually 10 out of 10. Communication is one of those areas that we are constantly working on. I don't read the non verbals too well, and he doesn't use his words (spoken like a true teacher). Put those together, and we end up with a problem. We're only in year 3, so we've still got plenty of time to figure this all out, but we both recognize that there probably was a misunderstanding somewhere along the way. You need to be prepared to fix the problem, not cast blame. Don't go crying to your girlfriend every time you have an argument with your spouse. You need to woMAN up. Take some alone time if you need to, but go to the source. And, eliminate the verbal weapons. These never help to remedy a situation. I'm sure you don't arm your children with names to call their peers should someone call them a name. "Okay, if she calls you a poo-poo face, then you call her a doody head!" We may have new names in our pockets as adults, but the end result is the same.

The Warrior Chick is one of the most complex, and she has many different facets, but she is also so amazing! Practice these 6 qualities in your own life. You will be amazed at how good you feel!