There is an idea that traditional femininity is weak and outdated, that for women to be strong, we have to be just like men. Women who tend the home, who nurse and nurture know nothing of battle.

I beg to differ.

Moses’s mother, in fierce maternal protection, defied a ruler. In the simple act of nursing her son, she nursed a rebellion against her people’s oppression. She raised up the one whom God would raise up to be their deliverer.

Mary, in simply submitting her body to shelter and grow a baby, became the mother of the Messiah, the vessel of the lion of Judah who would defeat our greatest enemy. Thus, she opened her mouth not to sing a lullaby, but to speak of casting down thrones and scattering the proud.

“The wise woman builds her house,” and she builds in quiet, but mighty subversion. She pushes back darkness with the light of love and grace. She raises the sword of truth to teach and admonish and train. She tends and nurses and nurtures, and she does so as an act of war against powers and principalities.

Who knows what seeds planted in the soil of our homes God may grow to work His will? We don’t have to spurn femininity to be strong. We must wield it. We don’t have to go far to fight. The battle is here. And we are already warriors.