The BEST Bible study for women I have ever been a part of was Five Aspects of Woman.

I participated in the study my last year of college, the year leading up to us getting married, and it completely changed how I thought of myself as a woman. In very good ways.

In the study, author Barbara Mouser outlines five different aspects of womanhood and explains how God created each, how each was affected by the fall of mankind, and how God has redeemed each aspect.

{Special note: This study has been updated and revised since I studied it over eight years ago, so forgive me if my comments or quotes from the book don’t line up with the newest  edition! I would love to go through this again with the newest edition!}

Each Sunday in October, as part of my 31 Days of All Things Woman series, I will be highlighting one of these aspects. The posts will not be an expert opinion or detailed analysis by any means {remember, we took a nine months to go through the study!}, but just my thoughts on how these aspects have been revealed in my life and how it might be in yours as well!

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This week’s aspect…

As an engaged college girl studying this with several other engaged or dating college girls, we all had a starry-eyed view of what “lifegiver” meant. We had visions of beautiful, glorious motherhood as our primary means of lifegiving.

Instead of focusing on the life I so hoped I would be giving in the future, I wish I had taken more time then to examine the ways I could give life right where I was.

Only now am I realizing the great importance of the other means by which I, as a woman, can give life to those around me.

“All of us are lifegivers. We have a created capacity in our bodies and in our spirits to give life, to nurture, to heal, to comfort, to encourage, to make things alive. Motherhood is important, but it is not the sum total of lifegiving.”

Yes, this. This is what to focus on because THIS is what we can all do as women to give life in the sphere of influence in which God has placed us.

• Comfort a friend.
• Encourage your sister.
• Write notes to friends just because.
• Nurture a younger woman through a mentoring relationship.
• Cook or bake or provide food for someone.
• Bring beauty to the places you share with others.

ALL of us can do these things.

And in this age of instant communication, you can give life across many miles in an instant with a kind word or encouragement via text or tweet or email. {But snail mail is even more fun to send and receive – don’t you think?!}

It’s not just about childbirth. It’s not just about motherhood. And for some of us, it’s not about either of those at all.

Find your gifts as a lifegiver and use them. And then heed this reminder…

“Learning to be good lifegiver takes a lifetime, and after you learn it, you should teach younger women how to do it.”

Lifegiving of all kinds, including motherhood, needs to be modeled and taught in order to be passed down, whether it is within families or churches or communities or elsewhere. My mother’s hospitality and warmth in welcoming people into our home, modeled for me growing up and continuing now, is a perfect example of passing on lifegiving ways.

{Oh, and you don’t have to be “perfect” to pass on what you know and what you’ve learned. Never forget that.}

And one last note – my hope and prayer for those who have grown weary in their efforts to give life {and I need this as much as you} is to follow these words…

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ~Matthew 11:28

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Have you discovered lifegiving opportunities in your own life?

Are you still discovering your gifts in this area?

Have you learned about lifegiving as it looks in “real life” from another woman?