Seeking Virtue Sunday-March 27, 2011

I found a blog hop over at Measuring Flower. Here is what T.J. says about her blog hop:

 It's intent is to connect Christian lady-bloggers across blogdom in a way that strengthens and encourages one another and our readers.

The title, quite obviously, is based off the Proverbs 31 lady. And the ruby butterflies off the same. Since I have never met a woman who was the perfect Virtuous Woman, I have selected Seeking Virtue because we as women are imperfect, but we do seek that virtue.

I am posting about this on a Wednesday to give you Christian ladies a heads-up in case you would like to participate. That way you have time to pen a related post.

This blog hop is for all Christian ladies, whether you're single, married, widowed, divorced, a mom, a grandma, an aunt...all born-again Christian lady-bloggers are openly invited to participate.

And of course there are some rules:

As with any blog hop, there must be rules. Here they are:

• You must have a family-friendly blog (i.e. rated G) and you must be a Christian lady.
• You must write a Christian post about your walk with Christ. Here are a few ideas:
• Something you personally have learned in your walk with Christ.
• A devotional to help other Christian ladies grow.
• An activity for Christian ladies to do that will strengthen their relationship with Christ.
• A Bible verse that's important to you and why.
• Something spiritual you shared with your kids and how they reacted.
• A virtuous lady (or godly man) whom you seek to be more like or who has positively impacted your life.
• Something else--be creative but do remain on topic.
• Please place either the button above (you can change its size) in your SVS post or copy and paste the SVS banner I have at the very top of this post into your post.
• I ask that you please leave a link back to this blog (http://www.MeasuringFlower.com).
• Return on Sunday to leave the link to your SVS post in the linky list that will be posted Sunday morning.

And there you have it. I personally will probably be going through Proverbs 31 in the beginning. You can do the same from your own perspective or you can do something else.

I have been reconvicted by the Lord recently about covering my head.  I have been wearing a head covering for about 15 years now, when I was going to a conservative Mennonite church that I became a member of.  

Wait, let's start at the beginning.  I grew up Catholic, but had drifted away from church, initially because of my work schedule and then because of getting married to a man whom I did not realize at the time considered himself an atheist.  I was very confused about my beliefs at this period in my life and after moving away from my family and church I grew up in, I didn't seek a new church.  Me being the shy person that I am.  A couple of years and several moves later I found myself living in a housing complex where my then husband and father of my three older children met a lady who was a neighbor. I am not sure how long he knew her before I met her. But to me, she was the lady in the purple coat with the black thingy on her head.  Very long story short, we became friends and had great conversations about different beliefs.  I eventually started attending her church and wearing my hair up in a bun and wearing dresses and skirts, though I wasn't covering yet, because I didn't know how my husband would react.  I know I had one conversation with him where I said something about being the way God made me and he didn't want to hear anything about it.  So I didn't feel I should be too radical.  

I knew all the ladies in the church covered their heads, I had read literature that made it sound that if you were a woman and not wearing a covering you weren't a Christian.  Of course this also brought some confusion into my mind.  I know there are plenty of good Christians who do not cover their heads.  Anyhow, I eventually was baptized (truly an Anabaptist as I was baptized as an infant in the Catholic Church, but maybe that will be a post for a later time), became a member of the church and was covering my head with an accepted black veil.  Though most of the women wore white caps the black veil was acceptable.  I knew the veiling symbolized submission to my husband, but I don't think I really grasped the concept of submission to the Lord.  Enter more conflict.  I became more active in the church, teaching Sunday School, attending church each week.  All the while not submitting to my husband who didn't want me going to church or wearing dresses or the "fish net" on my head as he called it.  I was torn and getting no real advice from anywhere.  There is a verse in the Bible that said we should obey God rather than man, so I figured, okay, God says cover my head, I need to obey.  There was so much tension in our marriage (though their were other issues too) that after several threats of divorce, he finally went through with it.  Close to the time of the divorce, a relative of someone in my church had given me a book called, Me, Obey Him? by Elizabeth Rice Handford.  What I got out of that book was that if I had it in my heart that I wanted to obey God but my husband wouldn't let me, I was to obey my husband as he was my head.  I still don't know that I agree with everything in her book, and I was really still confused, but it was too late for my marriage anyway even if I did stop going to church, stop wearing my veil and start wearing pants again.  

I continued to cover my head because I felt it was the right thing to do, I see it plain as day in 1 Corinthians 11 that a woman is to cover her head with an additional covering, not just her hair.  I admit I can not do a very good job explaining this on my own.  If you are interested in reading some great information on a Christian Woman's Head Covering I would recommend heading over to Amy's blog, Beloved, she has just been sharing some posts on head coverings and has some previous links as well.  edit: Unfortunately, Amy's blog is now only able to be viewed by invited readers. However, the article she used to link to is available over on Amazon. It is called, "The Biblical Headcovering: Scarf of Hidden Power."  I found it very informative.

As time went on I changed churches to a more liberal Mennonite Church where only one other lady wears a covering and that is only during church.  I started to question if I should continue to wear the covering.  My new husband is fine with me wearing my veil and my dresses, though he did request I wear my hair in a braid as opposed to a bun.  I just wasn't sure if it was necessary anymore.  I got to a point where I was wearing it because I didn't know what people would say if I stopped wearing it.  Would I be seen as a hypocrite.  And what would God think if I stopped wearing it.  I know that wearing the covering (which is now a bandanna) does not save me.  But it all got muddled in my mind. 

And along comes a blogger (Amy) who had not grown up Mennonite, yet discovered the Biblical teaching of covering her hair.  In fact, you should read her story, it is amazing.  Then I found out their are many other women out there, not brought up covering, but discovering the "rightness" of the practice, and desiring to be obedient to the Lord have started wearing a covering of some sort.  I have found it ironic that people who may have grown up in a church that used to cover no longer cover, the practice has gone by the way side.  The only explanation that comes to mind, is that so many are told they have to cover and not really told why that the significance of the veiling has been lost.

After reading all this information and reading testimonies of other ladies I have recommitted to wearing my covering as commanded by the Lord so as to be in submission to Him.  Though being submissive even now to my husband is a struggle for me at times, I will continue to seek the Lord's guidance and help to submit in obedience to His word.