Kindness Under Fire: Showing Kindness to Ourselves

by Marilynn Chadwick

I still marvel when I think about how God gave women the added privilege of being life-givers and co-creators of the entire human race. Eve was the first woman. Her name literally means “mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20). I love Eve’s response after giving birth to the first human ever born to a woman: “Look, I have created a new human, with the help of the Eternal” (Genesis 4:1 VOICE). Another translation puts it this way: “I produced a man” (Gen 4:1 TLV).

We’re not only able to bear children, but also to nurture them. What’s more, we have the ability to nurture others who are not necessarily our own children. We see that played out in the life of Deborah, the prophet, judge, and “mother in Israel” (Judges 5:7). Throughout Scripture, we find examples of this beautiful nurturer and warrior combination that God has mysteriously woven into the heart of a woman.

But the Bible warns us of the “enmity,” or hostility, between Satan and the woman after the Fall (Genesis 3:15). It makes sense, then, that the devil would try to lure the woman away from God’s original design, twisting her ezer strength into a rock—not of support, but of hardness. Distorting her courage into brazen ambition. And if he can derail her nurturer side—killing the kindness in a woman’s heart—he will have unleashed a creature who is destructive to her family, to the culture around her, and ultimately to herself.

The hostility between Satan and women has played out again and again on the stage of human history. Wherever we see women being mistreated, we can be sure the devil is lurking behind the scenes, manipulating others to cause women harm.

In the past, and even today in some parts of the world, women have been regarded as property, beasts of burden, or worse, as slaves. They’ve been caricatured as weak, overly emotional, or unintelligent. Beaten down, ignored, and oppressed, women are vulnerable to the same tactics the enemy has used for centuries. And when the devil can’t get someone else to oppress the woman, he downloads lies that destroy her from within.

This disarms her ability to nurture others. When a woman believes the enemy’s lies, not only are those around her at risk, but she will eventually harm her own soul. That’s why kindness begins when we first receive the kindness of God for ourselves. Only then do we have kindness to share with those around us.

That’s why it’s vital that women learn to balance our nurturer and warrior roles. When we do that, the people around us flourish.

Our Kindness Under Fire series is adapted from Woman of Valor by Marilynn Chadwick. Click here for more inspiration or to order a copy of Woman of Valor.