Consider this: When asked who encouraged the teens to go to church, talks with them about God’s forgiveness, and teaches them about the Bible, the majority responded it was their mothers.
Single or childless women shouldn’t be excluded from this discussion as there are plenty of examples of such women caring for the needs of others. Amy Carmichael comes to mind. This woman was never married and didn’t carry a child in her womb, yet when she died the children she tenaciously cared for wrote “Amma” on her grave, which means mother in Tamil.
Single women have a profound impact on the mission field. While comprehensive statistics are hard to come by, one survey indicates that as many as 85 percent of single people serving on the mission field are female. This statistic certainly holds up to my own experience overseas.
There are scores of childless women who foster and adopt children. There are even more who show up, week after week, to a youth group, a Sunday school, a Bible study, an assisted living facility, to teach and to care.
The simple act of showing up for those late night discussions about faith with a teenager or putting together a Sunday school lesson or helping to build a house of worship preaches volumes about the care God shows to teach his children about him. And more often than not, these vital roles are filled by women.
Women Were Among the First to Preach the Gospel, Without a Pulpit
I love the fact that the first time in the New Testament we see someone declare who Jesus is, it’s Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist and relative of Mary, who bore Jesus. She did not say these words in a temple (or behind a pulpit), rather in her home, and they were recorded for our benefit (Luke 1:41-42).
Then again, the first ones to witness and report Jesus’ resurrection are the women in the story. After sticking by Jesus while he was crucified and then traveling to the tomb to attend to his body, these women are given the honor of being the first to tell others he had risen from the dead. The women (Mark indicates the women included Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome; Matthew mentions Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary”; Luke lists Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and “the others with them”; John simply refers to Mary Magdalene) take the exciting news back to the 11 disciples and the rest, as they say, is history.
God certainly doesn’t shy away from encouraging his daughters to proclaim the truth, even if they don’t do it from a stage.
