The Seasons of a Woman’s Life -- By: Susan Hunt
Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 05:1 (Summer 2000)
Article: The Seasons of a Woman’s Life
Author: Susan Hunt
The Seasons of a Woman’s Life
When She’s Through Mothering, Will Her Life Seem Over
For several decades women have heard the messages of radical feminism. Having breathed feminist air for so long, even Christian women have unknowingly absorbed it in their spiritual pores.
Our preoccupation with our rights and our roles reveals the problem. Selfism slithers into our thinking by masquerading as a desire for significant ministry, when too often it is simply a desire for self-fulfillment and self-actualization. I know. My sensibilites were almost warped by this kind of non-biblical thinking.
When I was 30, with three preschoolers, my perspective was blurred. I assumed that by the time I was through mothering, life would be over—or at least that my years for productive ministry would be over. The higher I go on the chronological ladder, the clearer my life-view becomes, and the more I realize that my chief end is not to actualize or fulfill myself. My purpose is God’s glory.
A Season of Frustration
BC (before children), while my husband finished seminary, I worked in an inner-city church developing and implementing an outreach to neighborhood children and teens.
When Gene graduated, I made a quick transition to being a pastor’s wife in a rural community. In short order I was the mother of three children. My ministry passions were stifled. Diapers, dishes, and church duties left no time for what I considered real ministry. Frustration soared. I considered my frustration to be spiritual because the longing of my heart was to serve Jesus.
Then I met Mrs. Johnston. She was in her seventies when she joined our church. Her love for Jesus was contagious, and many of us were never the same after her arrival. When she was confined to a bed in a nursing home, I went there for spiritual transfusions. I would leave her room with a deeper love for Jesus, my husband, and our church.
Now I realize that for me the conversations were random, but for Mrs. Johnston they were intentional. She wisely detected my areas of discouragement, and she gently told me stories or shared insights that caused me to look at Jesus and not at my circumstance. This dear saint was not sidelined from serving Jesus and His people by her life season or circumstances.
A Season of Learning
My sensibilities were also being sanctified by time spent in God’s Word, the faithful preaching of my husband, and books by and talks with Christian women. Several things happened.
First, I began to understand that a biblical world-view does not separate the sacred and the secular. I learned that “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all...
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