To write her book A Year of Biblical Womanhood, Rachel Held Evans focused on a different biblical example each month for an entire year. During this time, she also interviewed many Christian women (and a few Jewish women) to learn more about the different ways to follow biblical womanhood.
The New Testament alone has multiple examples of biblical womanhood just in regards to women named Mary!
Are you like Mary, the mother of Jesus?
What about Mary, Martha’s sister who learned from Jesus while sitting at His feed?
Do you relate to Mary Magdalene, a female disciple who supported Jesus financially, who first spoke to Him after the Resurrection?
The Bible tells many stories of courageous, God-fearing women, many of whom look nothing like the stock images of slender blonde women who dominate the Christian blogosphere.
If you’re looking for a welcoming, inclusive space designed both to encourage and to challenge Christian women, then Muddling Through Together is for you.
Muddling Through Together was Created for YOU (and here’s why)
I launched Muddling Through Together on July 13, 2017, the second anniversary of my mother’s death. My vision for this website and community for Christian women comes from my mother’s own journey as a Christian woman.
Before there was a website, there was a book. More than 20 years ago, my mother self-published a book of prayers, Muddling Through: Prayers and Reflections for a Woman’s Journey.
But as any writer knows, a published work isn’t the true beginning of the story.
My Mother’s Story
My mother journaled throughout her life. Her filled journals still line the bookcases in my family’s home. It’s no surprise that eventually she wrote a book, but why a book of prayers?
My mother was raised in a Christian household, but like many of us, she still had years apart from God, seasons of questioning and doubt. As she grew in her faith, she turned to many sources to learn more about God and Christian beliefs.
Her ministers, her friends at church…
Beth Moore, Joyce Meyer…
A multitude of devotionals for women and prayer books for women…
All of these resources and more helped my mother grow as a Christian.
But she didn’t always connect to the prayers she read. Her prayer books didn’t always resonate to a middle-aged wife and stay-at-home-mom.
So my mother wrote out her own prayers. Eventually she realized that many of her prayers had grown beyond the truly personal, becoming prayers that would resonate with other women.
These journaled prayers became Muddling Through: Prayers and Reflections for a Woman’s Journey.
My Story
Today Christian women have many more resources available to them, but I have yet to find an online community for Christian women like me. Christian women who want to grow closer to God, but who don’t fit any conservative model of biblical womanhood. Christian women who question traditional teachings while still being rooted in faith.
I am tired of looking around and seeing resources centered around marriage and motherhood, as though Christian women are only in a single mold. So many Christian women are happily single, happily childfree, and yet there isn’t a strong online community for them.
Even though I am happily married, I know my greatest calling isn’t to be a wife and a mother. Even though my mother was happily a SAHM during my young childhood, she still challenged church expectations of Christian women.
So I decided to build this website and community in honor of my mother, to serve Christian women like us. Let me explain who will benefit from this website, why I want to help you, and how we will grow together as Christian women.
Muddling Through Together was Designed for Women Seeking God
At least some of you reading this right now are doing so primarily because you loved my mother, not because you share my faith. That’s okay. My beliefs are not for everyone, but I will not apologize for them.
I believe in:
- an Ultimate Being who I call God, the Maker of heaven and earth (Genesis 1:1)
- Christ my savior, who died for my sins (John 3:16)
- the intercession of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26-27)
I also believe that:
- my greatest calling is to love God (Mark 12:30)
- my second greatest calling is to love my fellow human beings (Mark 12:31)
- humans were all made in God’s own image (Genesis 1:27)
- all humans deserve to be treated with love (1 John 4:7-8) and respect (Romans 12:10)
These basic beliefs are why I identify as a Christian feminist.
Do you relate to that identity? Then this website is for you.
Do you feel God calling you to live a life outside the suburban, American “dream”? Then this website is for you.
Do you want to connect with Christian women worldwide, to learn from other Christian traditions, to discover fresh perspectives on the Bible? Then this website is for you.
Do you want to grow closer to God through prayer? Do you want to find encouraging scripture verses? Do you want to learn about the Bible through simplified, non-academic writing?
Then Muddling Through Together is for you.
I Want to Help Christian Women
I was blessed with Christian parents who encouraged my inquisitive nature. Even as a child, I was already asking questions about the elders in our church (why were they all men?) and wondering why we called God “He” if God was supposed to be greater than men and women.
We attended the same church that my great-grandparents was attended, in a denomination that didn’t ordain women. My parents didn’t agree with that practice, but they loved the people at the church, so we stayed.
Not all Christian women grew up in households that welcomed theological questions from children–or from women. I want my sisters in Christ to have the same opportunities that I’ve always had, the chance to study God’s word and to challenge male teachings.
Christian Women Can Lead
My senior year at university, I wrote a paper defending the ordination of women based on biblical and historical evidence. I later presented this paper at an academic conference, which my parents proudly attended.
Women can be official church leaders in ordained positions. I’m proud to know many intelligent, compassionate women who attended seminary and now serve churches as ordained ministers.
God doesn’t call all of us to seminary, but God does call all of us to share the Gospel. (Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:15, 2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Here on Muddling Through Together, I share my faith, but I also learn from my sisters in Christ.
The current contributors to Muddling Through Together all have different Christian backgrounds, but we all fervently accept Christ as our Lord and Savior.
I’m Presbyterian, more or less.
Alessia is Catholic.
Angela is Greek Orthodox.
Charlene is non-denominational Protestant.
And I welcome more Christian women to write for us! Apply to be a contributor today!
You can also join the conversation in our private Facebook group. This is a great opportunity to share prayer requests and to pray for your Christian sisters.
Final Thoughts
Muddling Through Together welcomes the misfits, the rabble-rousers, the women living outside the confines of traditional womanhood.
Together, we can pursue God and discover our place in the world as God’s children.
Will you join me on this journey?
- How to Pray to God: a Guide to Christian Prayer - September 3, 2022
- The Great Sex Rescue: An Honest Review - August 7, 2022
- Quiet Time with God Ideas (Great for Beginners) - May 16, 2022
