I am not a princess

Our women's Bible study is going through a video series taught by a popular teacher about being a woman after God's own heart. It is a good character study and I thought the speaker was doing a pretty good job until she started to describe what all girls dream about and then consequently what all boys dream about to illustrate her point.

Now in all fairness, I have gotten to an age where the moment I hear the words, “All girls like blah, blah, blah . . .” or “All women want yada, yada, yada . . .” my eyes start to roll back into my head. In my opinion, these broad strokes we paint, either over women or men, do neither of us any justice. I am not like all other women and I don't appreciate the generalizations. But I digress . . .

Back to my story.

Last night's teacher basically said, All girls dream about being princesses.

I'll let that sink in for a moment.

Now answer me this, What does a princess look like to you?

I think, for us Americans anyway, our ideas about princesses comes from our own fairy tales and animated movies. So if this particular teacher is correct, then the driving force behind all girls' dreams is the desire to look pretty and long for the day a boy rescues her and makes life worth living. Because that's what all boys dream about, being the hero.

So all girls are princesses and all boys are heroes.

Um, really?

Let me be clear. The idea that all girls are (or want to be) princesses is Disney propaganda, not Biblical theology.

If we are raising our daughters with the mistaken notion that they are helpless and hopeless until Prince Charming enters their life then we are doing them a disservice. We can and should do better.

I don't believe the Bible teaches us that all girls are princesses. But I do believe the Bible offers strong female role models our daughters (and our sons for that matter) can look up to.

Deborah for one. She was the greatest judge Israel ever had. There was no hint of unethical or immoral behavior that sidetracked Deborah's rule. In fact, the Bible says Israel enjoyed 40 years of peace under her reign (Judges 4:4-5; 5:31b).

Or how about Anna? She was the prophet who spoke about Jesus to all who longed for his redemptive work (Luke 2:36-38).

Let's not forget Junia. Commended by Paul as outstanding among the apostles (Romans 16:7).

Or what of Priscilla? A co-worker with the Apostle and a skilled teacher (Romans 16:3; Acts 18:26).

The Bible offers our daughters something much better than the anemic princess dream of our modern day fairy tales. Let's give them instead the God inspired dream of being leaders, judges, prophets, apostles, ministers, and teachers. 

Because girls can be heroes too.