2 thoughts on “New T&S Post: I Believe in Gender Roles”

  1. This is probably the best article I have ever read on gender roles. And I’ve read a lot of such articles over the past decade and a half. Thank you for taking the time to write it.

    My experience as a woman has been similar to what you talk about. I chose to be a mom and to order my life in a way that reflected my belief in the doctrine of motherhood, not because I somehow had a natural affinity for children or caregiving or homemaking or any of that. If anything, my natural talents and inclinations would have directed me down a different path than the one I took. But the repeated counsel and patterns you talk about, plus experiences with the Spirit, led me to choose this path. As you note, there is much of space for give-and-take in our home. I now have a from-home part-time job, for example, and I’ve had my toe in my professional space for the entire time I’ve been a stay-at-home mom. I still have no natural talents for the typical homemaking tasks and especially when my children were little, my husband was better at nurturing than I was.

    But at least for me, while the discipline of choosing the path I have chosen has definitely bound my heart to my children (and I think they feel a similar tie to me — I see what you talk about with the kids seeking Mom first almost always when in pain), I also feel like it’s invited me forward in my connection with God as *His* child. Ironically, I think talk of gender essentialism often is tied to sentiments of deprivation and pain (and the discipline you discuss often does come with a sacrifice). But I couldn’t have expected the kinds of blessings and growth that have come of making those deliberate (and sometimes unnatural) choices in faith.

    Anyway, thanks again.

  2. Thanks, Michelle. That’s a very refreshing perspective–and something I hadn’t considered–that is so different from most of the replies the post has garnered so far.

    I really appreciate you sharing it.

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