Who - or What - Is Your God?

I've read lots of opinions on lots of things during my years online. Wes was a programmer in the US Air Force from 1990 till 1996, and naturally, as e-mail and the internet came into more common use, our family was on the front edge of technology. I remember searching the web for Christian women's sites, and finding very little. After a while, more and more Christian sites began showing up, and I began reading and joining forums. It came to the point that I was reading about lifestyles varying somewhat from my rather mainstream independent Baptist upbringing. Some of it made sense to me, other things were a little far out there for me. None of it was wrong, though, and everyone had Scripture to back up what they believed.

The latest thing to hit the internet is the blog. Everybody has one, at least everyone who knows what a blog is! And that includes me, of course. I love blogging. Anyway . . . we all read each other's blogs and it's almost like a parallel society. I think it's great that all we have to do to find almost any information we want - and some we don't want - is type a couple of keywords into a search bar and we have it at our fingertips within seconds. I also think it's great that we can share our faith, our convictions, and our beliefs with each other. But - and there's always a but in there, huh?

The thing I've noticed that happens is that we ladies tend to latch on to a person or an idea and that person or thing becomes the guiding light of our lives. On forums that I've been part of, I've seen women with 5 children go into deep depression because they are quiverfull minded and they aren't pregnant. I've seen mothers in the deepest despair because their doctor has told them that they must have a c-section to protect either their life and health or their baby's. Or they are considering disobeying (or already disobeying) their godly husband's wishes concerning finances or birth control in order to follow "what's right." I've seen women in a panic because their husband wants them to put their child into a Christian school, or even public school, when they feel that God wants them to homeschool. I've seen women vow to never send their daughters to college, whereas others have vowed to make sure their daughters do go to college. I've seen courtship taken to unnatural extremes, such as insisting that potential spouses agree to come and live in the same home or on the same land as the family. I've also seen women ask advice of other women and take that advice as Gospel truth, when in reality it's not a clear-cut issue in God's Word. I've seen women gush over this author or that pastor and hang on every word he or she says.

None of these things mentioned above are wrong. Homeschooling is our choice for educating our children. Giving God complete control of your fertility is good and right. Having babies naturally is good - God equipped us pretty well for that. He also equipped us to feed our children from our own bodies; nothing is superior to a mother's milk. Tithing and giving are right. Training for a life work is a good thing, but so is staying home with your parents. Courtship is good; the principles, when used wisely, are producing happy marriages. But none of these things should be an end in themselves.

Wes and I were talking yesterday about how sometimes we get a list of proofs of spirituality in our minds, and if someone doesn't fit into that neat little box we've concocted, they aren't spiritual, or we even assume that that person is out of God's will. The fact is, we cannot know what God's will is for anyone other than the person we see in the mirror each morning. Let me encourage you, as a wife, mother, single person, student - make God your only God. Don't worship at the altar of quiverfull or homeschooling or natural birth or courtship or . . . fill in the blank with the latest thing that "everybody who is a Christian does." Listen to your husband. Listen to your pastor. Search the Scriptures and listen to God; keep your feet grounded in God's Word instead of Sister Blogger's word. If you have to, take a break from the internet and face your real life and the people in it. Don't let the good replace the best in your life!