Ladies Bible Study Thursday, July 7th

by | Jul 7, 2011

1 Samuel 1: 4-7

Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the LORD had closed her womb. Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.

Let’s face it ladies there always seems to be some sort of competition between females whether spoken or quite often not spoken.  It starts as little girls and often the competition is over who is friends with who and unfortunately it seems as though it has escalated now to where there are serious problems in High Schools where the “mean girls” can torment other girls to the point of suicide.  All of this stems from our deep desire to be special our desire to be irreplaceable to someone and as adults we long for the man in our life to treat us in a way at all times that shows us that there isn’t a woman on earth that could fill our shoes.  I can only imagine the torment women had to feel when their husbands had other wives and there was no real commitment to making you feel loved and quite obviously they were replaceable on a daily basis.  How sad.

Now here is what I would like each of you to consider:  we all know as women that when a man and woman walk into the room and there is even one other woman in that room there is often an unspoken competition for that man’s attention.  How do you respond in those situations?  Are you vying for his attention just to satisfy that need to be special to someone even if that man is married or do you maintain your dignity and the dignity of the other woman by behaving in a way that shows you don’t “need” his attention to complete who you are today?  You prove to be more than enough and your self esteem will be higher when you choose to recognize that you have more self worth than to lower yourself to a level of groveling for a man’s attention at the expense of another woman’s heart.  Why is it so often we are hurt by other women, we need to stand together and recognize how precious and tender the female heart is.  Maybe you have been so hurt by other women you don’t feel like reaching out or caring if someone else gets hurt but as you nurture those feelings all you succeed in is lowering your own self esteem, I know because believe it or not I’ve been there. 

One day several years ago I was waitressing at a local restaurant and there was a couple seated at one of my tables and I could tell by the woman’s expressions she was very distraught.  When I walked over to the table her husband instantly started with flirtatious comments and acting like he was just all that and I knew then why she was so miserable, I’ve been in her shoes and God really spoke to my heart at that moment that we as women need to protect the female heart whether it is our own or someone else’s.  We need to take a stand especially when a man is involved and we need to rise above that urge to steal the attention, to treat ourselves and other women with more dignity than that, there is no need to feel desperate.  If you feel desperate in that area I would urge you to plead with God to fill that need and to show you how worthy you are of so much more than a few minutes of that man’s attention.  I have seen some women who don’t even care if the man is married and that is seriously wrong, we should never lower ourselves to that point.  Anyhow needless to say, I pretty much ignored the man at the table and directed all of my attention toward her, at one point when he got desperate and made an inappropriate comment directed at me, I corrected him, the tip didn’t matter at that point, it was more important to take a stand for her.

Are you Peninnah or are you Hannah this morning?  I would like to encourage you to stand tall today knowing you are beautiful and God delights in you and wants so much more for you! He has a plan and it is important to be that godly woman He has called you to be.  Trust Him and He will bring it to pass; the best is yet to come!

Quote:  “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”  Eleanor Roosevelt

1 Comment

  1. tereasa cox

    thank you for your blog! i just heard your husband on the radio this morning talking about your blog and how proud he is of you!!! I loved all of the posts in this blog! im hooked, cant wait till tomorrow!!!