A family member wrote today and asked me what I like about being a woman/feminine.  (HINT:  Never ask a question of a missionary unless you are prepared to receive a sermon in reply!!!)  So here's my sermon:

The thing I like most about being a woman and being feminine is that this was God's idea.  At no time prior to my birth did I say to the Almighty (or to anyone else for that matter) "Please make me female.  Please, please, please.  I don't want to be male.  I want menstrual cramps.  I choose morning sickness.  I'm longing to go through labor and childbirth.  I want to experience all the mysteries of menopause."  God didn't give me that option.  My Father, the Most High God, my Master, my King, made me female.  And HE NEVER MAKES MISTAKES!  Not ever.  This whole notion of male and female originated in the mind of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in Eternity Past.  I wholly embrace being female, a woman, feminine because I wholly embrace the One Who hand picked me to be a woman.  He could so easily have made me a man instead.  I love all the marvelous privileges I have as a woman. I have the high honor of being the wife of a man, according to God's holy plan.  God has blessed us with an ever increasing love in our marriage of 49 years, and that quite in spite of (and sometimes because of) all of our humanness, all of our faults, failings, and just plain old fashioned sin.  I have the  high honor of being a mother to three sons.  I mothered them quite imperfectly, but God in his marvelous grace, mercy, and loving kindness both for me and for them, carried them safely through their childhood and out into adulthood.  I am in awe of all the ways God has used me, a woman, in His service.  At no time and in no way have I felt inhibited, held back, or restricted in Christian ministry because I am female.  Quite the contrary.  I have always felt that my role in ministry, though not the same as a man's role, has been extremely fulfilling.  I look back over 48 years in full time Christian service with a heart overflowing with gratitude to my Lord and Master for all He has enabled me to do.  As I, a feminine female woman, turn and look back over 72 years of life, 66 of which have been lived as a Princess in the Royal Family of the King of Kings, I am humbled at all He has done in me and for me and through me.  To Him be all the glory and the honor due His lovely Name.  And as I turn back around and look ahead to the end of my life as a feminine woman of God, I can hardly wait for the day when He calls me Home.  I love the day, the month, and the year of my  birth because my Lord selected that for ME.  I love resting in the confident assurance that He also has the day of my death all planned out.  He knows the day, the month, the year, indeed the exact moment when my time on this earth place will end.  As a woman, no as HIS woman, I must be about my Father's business.  I must work while there is day.  The night is coming when no man works.  I want to end my race well.  I want my Father to be proud of His daughter.  I want to hear Him say "Well done."  Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.