The role of a woman is very important, because God created her with a very special task to procreate, unlike man. God's purpose for woman is different from that of man. So, let us not get confused with our position. The obedient woman and her descendants are blessed abundantly with physical, spiritual and material health in her honest carrying out of the aforesaid task otherwise they are cursed, condemned and life becomes a 'living hell'.
However, the wholehearted and committed woman who accepts God 's purpose and is prepared to take up the task gets the moral courage, will power and strength to move on and will thank God that her 'yoke' as a woman is not harsh, hard; sharp or pressing but musical, comfortable, gracious, pleasant. With God's grace, her 'burden' as a woman would be light and easy to bear.
Nation building begets from a woman. The good woman begets a good Nation through home making thereby bringing up 'quality children while a bad woman begets a bad Nation by producing unreliable children. Of course, this should not be understood to mean that women alone bear the entire responsibility as men are equally responsible. However, the point is that we should not pin our blames just on our physical weakness and continue to lead a defeated life, but instead take up strong discipline and a positive stand to fulfil our purpose and meaning as a woman.
Our many a crisis as woman is created for our naive tendency, acting like a 'thermometer' disregarding God's instruction for a good life, hope and a future. If the temperature is cold we simply register it cold. If the people are happy we are happy. If the people are sad we are sad. Unless women are strong enough to witness adverse situation, crisis would be expected. Should this always be our crisis? Nevertheless, we must remember at all cost that God created us, women to be 'thermostats' capable of changing the climate, with humane qualities and determination like that of Esther, who out of committed love and care for her people said "If I perish I perish" and went to the King after fasting, meditation and was able to save her people.
Take a challenge of "I care" and a courageous stand to the point of "If I perish I perish", for our land, which is in dire need of healing from spiritual, moral bankruptcy and political disunity and fratricidal killing. Once we are fully committed to the larger issues referred to above, naturally our other problems such as groupism, gossips, lies, revengefulness, jealousy, hatred and narrow politics among women will surely vanish. God will answer our prayers and heal our land.
How to overcome our crisis and what are our responsibilities as women? Should I say, the greatest ignorance is not to be aware of one's potentialities and limitations? In many cases women fail to realize their full potential to raise her social, education and economic standards. Her God given abilities lie dormant and under developed. It is said that the average woman utilizes less than 4 to 10 percent of her intellectual capacity and potentiality. It is irony of our life that with so much of our capabilities lying unutilized in us, we women still talk of poverty, ignorance and sickness as though they are a legacy from God and something to flaunt about. Our attitudinal change is the only answer to overcome our crisis.
The husband is the head of the family, the wife is the neck and the head is turned by the neck or the neck turns the head. A woman may be slow and weak like a Turtle in many ways before a man but if we master in "our own fields" we too can be winners. Let us look at the story of "Turtle and the Hare", who had four marathon races, which has valuable lessons to teach.
Race 1: "Slow and Steady Wins the Race" is the acceptable comparison to anyone familiar with the story. The 'Hare' aware of his obvious advantage, rested and slept mid-race and the Turtle won. Is this an explanation that in various streams of education of post graduate studies under Nagaland University often 70% to 90% of students are female? Often most of the toppers are female in various public examinations conducted by Nagaland Board of School Education (NBSE) or Nagaland University (NU). Women have made their mark not just here but beyond the state.
Race II: "Talent and Consistency Wins the Race". In this race the 'Hare' consistently applied his abilities of speed and won the race. I don't mean to say that women are superior or inferior in their intellectual capacities but I mean to say they can bank on their qualities of being long-suffering, meek; gentle, dedicated to their profession and so on.
Race III: "To be a Winner Know Your Strength and Limitations as Well" or "Know Your Own Field". This was a difficult race, which involved crossing a river on the request of the Turtle, who knew his limitations and potentialities. The 'Hare' raced on grounds unbeaten but when they entered the river, the current took away the 'Hare' who could not swim and the 'Turtle' once again won the race. Just knowing our capabilities without recognising our limitations is considered dangerous in life's race.
Race IV: "In Mutual help, everyone is a Winner." In this last race they decided to help each other. The 'Hare' would carry the 'Turtle' to cross the valley and the 'Turtle' would carry the 'Hare' through the river. Here is a win- win situation, this noble idea was contributed by the Turtle, who is generally considered to be weak and slow, but has a cool head with utmost integrity without selfishness of any kind which is all we need today. It is God's purpose for man and woman, or woman and woman to mutually help each other in this journey of life's race in the present competitive and globalized world. We must adopt the aforesaid valuable principles and lessons but above all, a culture of mutual help where both emerge as winners.
Rich parents who heap money on their children make them lose incentive and become more dependent by nature. If you give a fish to a boy every day without teaching him how to fish, you deceive him. The Jews "glorified work, loved work" and believed that "he who does not teach his son a trade teaches him robbery." Advanced European countries take the task of teaching their children self-reliance very seriously. Most parents by their deep-rooted work culture send their children who have attained the age of 17 and 18 from the comforts of home or their children live with them and pay their provisions and rents. This is to help them discover their potential and learn responsible independence.
Proper and concentrated application of our talents and discipline are the only areas found wanting; our potentialities remain hidden and wasted under our hedonistic life-style and procrastination. More than the physical environment, it is the person's own assessment of self that the prosperity and success of a person depends. Factors like attitude, talent, aptitude and strength of the individual. so also, the culture of the society will help a person utilize his full potentialities. A community of irresponsible, lazy and dependent persons with no entrepreneurial drive who do not believe in their own sweat and toil will not help a person, but rather diminish her self-worth. For a person strongly guided by several forces and values like burning desire to win, sense of responsibility and consistency, strength of character, planning with common sense, hard work, commitment, integrity, frugality, self-discipline, persistence, care and deliberation in choice of profession, etc., success is assured. Yet more important and infinitely harder is to maintain what one has built. Women may go from crisis to crisis but that would not break her spirit. With God's help, she would only get stronger and realize her worth, becoming more responsible and productive in the society she is placed in.
Geographical locations or physical strength and natural resources are no gradient of a person's success. Any person having the practical and attainable vision, qualification, capabilities, strength of character and knowing her limitations and specialties big or small, can go anywhere, trade or serve and lead a good life in today's world. History is replete with examples of men and women uprooted from every establishment who made life for themselves in a new setting and made it well. Nevertheless, we also find the richest soils being inhabited by people who grew up in conditions of abject poverty and backwardness.
God created every one of us to be successful. An apt example would be of a lady named Marie who worked at a restaurant near Los Angeles USA. She waited on tables, cooked, cleaned and basically did it all. One day her boss, the owner said that more and more customers were requesting desserts. The boss told Marie that she had to come in early to make desserts every morning. Her first reaction was frustration. She thought this was not fair. She already worked hard enough. Above all, the restaurant did not offer anything extra for her, but instead of getting bitter, Marie decided to accept the new duty as a challenge. She set her sights on creating the best desserts she possibly could. Marie's pies caught on. Customers loved them. In fact, people come to the restaurant just to have a piece of her pie. Her pies became so popular that Marie decided to open her own pie company. Eventually Marie Cullender’s company had 110 restaurants and an entire line of frozen pies and entrees sold in the Super markets.
It does not matter where you are right now. God has moments of favour for you too, like Marie who went the extra mile displaying a character of long suffering and meekness. "For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" Jeremiah 29: Il. "For my power is made perfect in weakness. ...for when I am weak then I am strong" Il Corinthians 12:9-10.
When the woman recognises her weaknesses, humbles herself before God, grows deeper in prayer, truly seeks the face of God and discovers His plans for her, then she becomes strong and her power is made perfect in her weaknesses. Talent and academics may help one to the top but it is persistence and spiritual health that keep her there. Insecurity amidst prosperity of America serves as an illustration. At an Initiative of Change internationalconference at Panchgani, a speaker from the US said: "To serve on the rocks is safer than to live in the US." I believe he said this because Americans are a nation grown rich by education and deep-rooted work culture. Unfortunately, with a divorce rate of62% and fatherless children 37%, etc. Americans suffer from abject spiritual bankruptcy, possibly a big cause behind their insecurity in their society today. A morally educated person will be a lot better equipped to move up in life and the social, moral and economic ladder than one who is morally bankrupt.
Enoli Kevinourheno Seyie,
Hidden Forests,
IG Stadium,
Kohima, Nagaland