There is in a woman a type of feminine strength that is glorious to behold; a strength that lives and sustains life. Many wounded women who deal with lesbianism, however, try to live out of a false masculine strength - as a means of self-protection. A woman cannot experience her womanly strength until she abandons the masculine. This is difficult because it requires that she accept a degree of vulnerability. This article is reprinted from the August, 1993, issue of Regeneration News.

Earle Fox talks about feminine strength as contrasted with masculine authority. Leanne Payne talks about the feminine sense of "being." Both refer to a womanly strength that is difficult to describe although we intuitively recognize it. It is calm; it is wise; it knows in an intuitive sense. In the woman if is literally life-giving. It sustains life and it provides the glue -- the center that holds the family together. It provides the place of security for the strongest man, where his strength can be renewed.

This sense of being, this womanly strength is in no way dependent on a muscular physique or an aggressive attitude. In fact, it can only be manifested and made visible, and can only develop to its fullest potential, in a woman who is outwardly vulnerable.

We live in a world that does not recognize this womanly strength. The lesbian personifies the woman who, for one reason or another, sees the feminine not as strength, but as an intolerable vulnerability. Therefore, she pursues strength in its outward, masculine form.

But this never works. Trying to use a strength that is not hers, rather than the inherent strength within her, she is forever striving. She is never secure, never at peace.

I believe that the journey that women must take from lesbianism to full womanhood is far more difficult than the journey to manhood for the male homosexual. The man is moving from weakness to strength. The woman is moving from self-protection to vulnerability. Perhaps this is why our ministries seem to do so much better in ministering to men.

But if the woman is to be healed, one day she must be able to live out of her feminine strength. However, before this can be possible, she will have to let go of her false masculine strength. The feminine cannot develop until the false masculine is forsaken.

There are two problems with this. One is the woman's legitimate fear of vulnerability. I am convinced that God, in providing a wonderful complementarity between the sexes, called for man to be the physical protector of woman, to provide the safe place for the woman to "be." But man is fallen and sinful, and he would as likely hurt and abuse the woman as he would protect her. So the woman must look to Jesus as her ultimate protector. This is difficult for any of us, especially for any person who has been badly hurt in the past.

The second problem for the woman seeking to live out of her feminine strength has to do with the sense of being that lies at the heart of the feminine. Although a certain amount of the feminine is in every woman -- because she comes from her mother's body and is nurtured through her mother's body -- something may not gain a sense of separate identity that provides the place where her sense of being can develop. Put another way, still seeking her mother, her sense of being is still tied to her mother. It does not reside separately and securely in her.

So before a woman can enter the world of feminine vulnerability, some healing may have to take place. Her encounters with Jesus will likely be where she will experience this. Jesus was always gentle with women. He always valued and esteemed them. Jesus is the Re-Creator, and for women, just as for men, he can impart to us those things that we somehow never received from our parents. And once Jesus brings to life a woman's sense of being, other godly Christian women in her life may be able to nurture it and help it grow.

Finally, however, to be a woman in all that womanhood gloriously represents, she will have to abandon her false masculine self-protection. She will have to start living out of her womanly sense of being, wonderfully strong, but still vulnerable.

Return to list of all articles