Female emancipation is now a reality. Women are competing with men on every level. Are we racing toward a unisex world? Are there standards for young girls and teenagers to live by? How do you become the right kind of girl? What does God Say?
"You've come a long way, baby, to get where you got to today," shrills the cigarette ad to women of the "now" generation. True, women have "come a long way." There's no doubt about it. But where have they come from — and where are they going? Where are you going? Since the ultimate "fate" of every girl is WOMANHOOD, what should a woman really be? And, through the eyes of God — what is a GIRL?
The Battle of the Sexes
In today's topsy-turvy, upside-down world, girls have been taught from infancy to compete with their male counterparts — on every level. From office work to politics, from finances to cab driving. Today's women are "free." They've even got their very own cigarette with which to wreck their health. The latest trend began around the turn of the century and snowballed with the two world wars. Tired of a second-place rut, our twentieth-century woman cast off the shackles of tradition. She suddenly leaped from the seclusion of the back seat to the wheel of the family station wagon. From the mundane world of the kitchen sink and the oven to the glittering world of the office. Men were put on notice, "Man's world" was under siege! Women marched for suffrage (the right to vote), the right to work, eat and live in male environments. They marched into theaters, into bars and nightclubs, into jobs and factory work — to take their place in previously "off-limit" areas. It was done in the name of equality, human rights and suffrage. Now the siege has lifted. Society has had a face-lifting. But what have been the results? Has it made the world a happier place? Have truly happy homes been produced? Where has it all led?
Meanwhile, What About God?
In all the confusion of modern space-age life, has anyone stopped to ask what the Creator of ALL had in mind when He created humans, male and female? The Bible is literally jam-packed with scriptures explaining the reason for all human life — for Adam and Eve. God never intended a battle of the sexes. He never intended women to compete with men in sports, on horseback, in business, in labor — or any where else! Nor did God intend for women to be subservient, second-rate, inferior members of a browbeaten subculture. Women were not designed to be slaves or a "necessary evil." It's time you knew the truth. God is not pro-man, anti-woman. God is pro-humanity!
A Team Effort
It was God in the beginning who said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet [suitable or fitting] for him" (Gen. 2:18). God then "caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept" (Gen. 2:21). From the rib which God removed from Adam, He created the first woman — Eve — created to be a suitable help for her husband. Men and women aren't to compete — they are to help each other. God say so! The physical goal for every young girl is to someday become a part of a man-wife TEAM EFFORT. Both learning and preparing for their respective parts and both looking forward to eventually being born into the Kingdom of God. Notice I Peter 3:7. Jesus Christ inspired Peter to write, "Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel [not a jackhammer operator], and AS BEING HEIRS TOGETHER OF THE GRACE OF LIFE; that your prayers be not hindered." There's no sexual discrimination in God's Plan. Men are not "better" than women in God's sight. They are just different. But both are looking to the same spiritual goal. Now that we have the ultimate purposes of women and girls in mind, let's examine some specific areas of how to prepare for your responsibilities. God is infinitely interested in each of you. You are important – very important — in His eyes. Now for some specific points.
A Girl Should Be Educated
Time was when women were thought to be not only weaker physically, but weaker mentally. Men were supposed to be more scholarly, deeper thinkers — the only ones who really needed education. Only in comparatively modern times have girls gone to school — especially to receive higher education. We have already seen God created humans male and female — coheirs — to share life and equally inherit the Kingdom of God. Therefore, EDUCATION is as important for a girl as it is for a fellow. Because of this need for education, Ambassador College was established as a coeducational institution. Women, who will be working side by side with their mates, need training in arts and culture as well as more domestic subjects in order to be effective partners with their husbands. A capable, dedicated man with an uneducated woman for a wife will have little success leading and inspiring others. But the education of a woman should not be channeled into the same fields of education as men. In today's society, women compete with men in the fields of mathematics, science, even building and construction. This is not the kind of education women should pursue. Tests over many years have shown there is no basic difference between the intelligence level (what we call I.Q.) of men and women. Women are able to learn and retain facts, assimilate and use them in equal proportion to men. The difference is not in mental agility — the difference is in God's intention. Remember, when God created Adam and Eve, He said of the woman, "I will make him an help mate [suitable or fitting] for him." A woman's education should complement — not compete with — the education and physical job responsibilities of the man. Society and our modern educational institutions have not understood this vital principle. In basic fundamental understanding and in the liberal arts, men and women should share learning and experiences — in subjects such as English composition, music and history. Men and women need to have a common bond of knowledge. Otherwise, they have nothing in common. The specialized education a man will follow in preparing for a job in engineering or science is totally different from the training and calling of a woman. A woman should be thoroughly trained in domestic sciences (home economics), family management and planning. At Ambassador our young women prepare for responsible lives learning the basics of home management, rearing children and preparing to be inspiring helps to their future husbands.
Vocational Training Not Wrong
This does not mean that women should not prepare for a vocation! Many women Ambassador graduates, for example, also prepare for fields in teaching and secretarial training. Others prepare to be home economics instructors or work in the fields of music and art. Marriage is not always the immediate goal of a young woman of college age, therefore women should prepare for responsible positions and jobs after graduation from high school or college. But their ultimate calling and responsibility should be to become a loving wife and later a mother. Not vice versa, as is far too often the case. In ancient times, girls were never educated to become proper wives and mothers. They were kept in ignorance spawned by superstition. In modern times, the "emancipated" modern wife, unencumbered by the taboos of tradition, has been educated — but is no longer competent to be a wife and mother. The divorce courts with their stockpile of statistics are living witness against the system we have created. But you do not have to be one of these statistics! You can be an educated, balanced, proper young woman, if you realize your purpose and set out to accomplish your life patterned after the laws of Almighty God. Education is not the final step for young girls preparing for womanhood. It is really only the basic FOUNDATION. There is yet more.
A Girl Should Be Beautiful
It may come as a real shock to you, but BEAUTY is a prime consideration for a girl. But then, doesn't every girl want to be beautiful or pretty? And, is that wrong? Of course, beauty for the sake of vanity and selfishness is not God's way. If the skin of a person's face happens to he stretched just right and she is ravishingly beautiful, myriad problems beset the poor girl. She may be the most popular girl in school — only to be the most divorced later in life! Witness Hollywood's most prominent "sex symbols." But simply because scores of beautiful women have led miserable and wretched lives doesn't mean beauty has to lead to unhappiness. True beauty is good. Let's see some Biblical examples.
A Biblical Beauty Queen
One of the most outstanding examples is Sarah, the wife of God's servant, Abraham. If you remember the account in chapter twelve of Genesis, God told Abraham he would inherit a great and wonderful land. But a famine had come and Abraham had to more into Egypt to care for his family (verse 10). Before entering Egypt, Abraham warned his wife about a potential problem. He knew the Egyptians would immediately notice her beauty and would perhaps kill him so they could take Sarah (verses 11-12). And sure enough, when they reached Egypt, it came to pass, "...the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair" (verse 14). Pharaoh himself — a man surrounded by beautiful women — selected Sarah to be his wife and was willing to purchase her from Abraham. However, God did not allow it. That would be adultery. The point is, Sarah was so striking, the Egyptian Pharaoh wanted her for his wife. You probably think Sarah was a beautiful, young women. True, she was beautiful — but not young, at least by our standards. She was SEVENTY YEARS OLD! How many seventy-year-old women have you ever known who would cause such a stir? Pharaoh's designs certainly lend striking testimony to her personal beauty. Another outstanding woman from Biblical times was Ruth. Ruth was a widow out gleaning the grain left over from harvest, when Boaz (a wealthy Jewish landowner) first noticed her. You can, and should read this account in Ruth. It's a very short book. Ruth's appearance was so impressive, Boaz had to stop and ask who she was. if you are really realistic, you know Ruth was not a 217-pound, waddling nightmare with a raucous voice which would drown out a foghorn. And remember, she was working. She certainly must have been a captivating picture of beauty to so attract Boaz. And he was so struck by her he would later marry the beautiful Moabitess who had come with her mother-in-law, Naomi, to live with the people of Israel.
Esther Saves a Nation
Yet another example of a beautiful woman in the Word of God is a woman responsible for an entire nation of people existing today who may otherwise have been killed. God devotes an entire book to her life and her part in history — the book of Esther. Every girl should make a study of the hook of Esther. We don't have space to expound it here. But you may recall King Ahasuerus desired to marry the most beautiful woman in the land. There had been a conspiracy against the Jews at that time and God used the beauty of a woman — as well as her inspiring attitude which made her truly beautiful — to save His people. Becoming the wife of a king was a very great privilege and Esther prepared diligently to present herself in the most attractive way possible. Notice Esther 2:12, "Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with other things for the purifying of the women)." No doubt Esther was a gorgeous girl. But notice the examples of the intense personal care. She literally spent a solid year getting ready for marriage. The result? "And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti" (Esther 2:17). It paid for Esther to spend time becoming beautiful. It will for you, too! In these specific examples (there are numerous other examples similar to these in the Bible), a beautiful woman played a very important part in God's plan. However, their beauty was a clean, fresh, fragrant, well-groomed, natural beauty. You can be certain it was not a modern commercial beauty of paint, false eyelashes, pancake makeup and wigs! The Bible records the account of another beautiful woman — Jezebel. But she put her beauty on in the morning and it all came off just before she went to bed. Inside she was a vehement, insidious, caustic, hateful hag. Her beauty from a battery of jars was designed to seduce men (see II Kings 9, especially verse 30). Jezebel's heart was absolutely foul and rotten. She sought the life of one of God's greatest servants of all time — Elijah. And she would have killed him had God not intervened. She suffered a hideous death for her rotten ways. She ended up eaten by dogs. God was totally unimpressed with her brand of "beauty." But righteous, faithful women God records had a natural beauty. They cared for themselves with personal habits of cleanliness, grooming and clothes selection. In every case what was most BEAUTIFUL was their mental outlook and attitude.
Your Part in Beauty
How does all this apply to young girls and young women today? Mothers should teach their daughters what real beauty — GENUINE beauty — is. And mothers should set the pace in example! Being overweight, having poor personal hygiene, being unkempt and disorganized detract from true femininity. A really beautiful woman, properly motivated, can he truly inspiring. Learn how, to take care of yourself. Learn to dress properly and look sharp. Watch what you eat. Weight problems and facial blemishes can largely be controlled by diet. You should also read a booklet entitled True Women-hood – Is it a Lost Cause? It's free, of course. Before leaving the subject, a word should certainly be given to all girls and women about hair care. The Bible plainly states a woman's hair is given to be a vital part of beauty. "But if a woman have long hair, it is A GLORY TO HER: for her hair is given her for a covering" (I Cor. 11:15). Long hair on a man is unequivocally wrong and it is a shame for a man to have such hair (I Cor. 11:14). The opposite is true of a girl. Long hair is a crowning glory and a mandatory part of true beauty. Contrary to the beliefs of many people, there is not a single scripture in the Bible which says, "Thou shalt put no scissors to thy hair." The instruction from God's Word is that a woman should have properly long hair. It does not say a woman's hair length must be to the middle of her back. Rather, God says, it is a "covering." Hair styles are very personal and individual — and certainly a very important part of how to be a girl. This brings us to the next major quality.
A Girl Should Be Pure
If anything typifies, symbolizes, and represents our modern twentieth-century youth, it is sexual licentiousness and freedom. A young person is just not "in" unless he or she has an affair (or ten affairs) prior to marriage. Sex "counselors" encourage pre-marital sex experimentation to "check out compatibility." You're a total "square" if you don't neck, pet, or go all the way. But again, what are the fruits of this moral degeneracy? The fruits are illegitimacy, venereal disease, warped and twisted minds. And if you disagree with the facts, the mountainous proof, the incontrovertible evidence — that's your problem. It's your prerogative — but it doesn't make you right.
Virginity — An Obsolete Word?
You remember what kind of woman Esther was? She was not only a beautiful woman — she was a virgin. She had not compromised with God's laws and was able to present herself in marriage pure and clean (Esther 2:17). How about you? Will you present yourself a pure, clean and chaste young woman at the time of your marriage. Fewer and fewer in our permissive society can say they are virgins at the time of their marriage. Reports and estimates vary, but it certainly can be assumed that well over sixty percent of all young brides have had premarital sex relations. Other authorities put the figures as high as EIGHTY PERCENT. What a testimony against our society! You have to decide, girls, whether or not you'll be on the short end of the statistics. You'll have to decide if you will buck the crowd and put up with the taunting derision, being called "grannie" in the school halls by those who experience and practice "free love." But, listen, it will be well worth it to your entire future life — to your future husband and to your future children. It means you will have to resist the steady pressure of the insistent and selfish "lines" of young men. It means "slapping the fire out of" the first fellow who tries to lay a hand on you and avoiding dates with the wrong kind of young men with nothing but SEX on their minds! You'll only have to slap one — maybe two — because word like that really gets around, girls. Don't ever give in — no matter what anyone says. Think of what you have to lose! NOW for our fourth and final point in developing a young girl into true womanhood.
A Woman Should Be Trained to Be a Keeper at Home
We have already seen how God created mankind male and female — a team to function together. The Bible record gives God's principle, "... she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Gen. 2:23-24). Since almost every young girl is going to become a wife one day, isn't it logical that her training and upbringing should qualify her and prepare her for this time in life? The Bible plainly states the older women should "teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, KEEPERS AT HOME, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed" (Titus 2:4-5). God did not create woman to be a competitive counterpart to the male. Each was created with a purpose and equipped with abilities and talents to fulfill those purposes. The man is to earn the living. He was created to work in the hot sun — to till the ground, build the factories, produce from the earth. The woman was created to complement, supplement, inspire and help the man in fulfilling that purpose while she functions in her own abilities. What a different world it would be if everyone understood this one vital point of knowledge. Unfortunately, the world doesn't understand. But you can understand. You can put these principles into practice in your life — you teen-agers, especially you young girls reading this article, can prepare for your place in Tomorrow's World with the knowledge you are gaining through the pages of this magazine.
But Is It Worth It?
Is it worth it to forsake the "fun" of the teen years? Is it worth it to keep yourself morally pure and to prepare for adulthood? Is it worth it to swim upstream — to buck the tide — to resist the crowd? There is a certain "pleasure" to be derived from sin. God says so in Hebrews 11:25. There is a certain sensual thrill attached to many of the world's practices. But it's only "for a season." You always have to pay the penalty of sin. The pleasures of sin might be likened to someone offering you an inheritance of one million dollars. However, there are a couple of stipulations involved. Ten thousand dollars is offered to you when you're fifteen. You may take it with absolutely "no strings attached." Just think — you can have all the clothes you've dreamed of and a new car. The only catch is — you forfeit your claim to the remaining $990,000. However, if you'll turn down the ten thousand at age fifteen — wait six short years, to age twenty-one, you'll become a MILLIONAIRE! Which would you choose? Would you grab the immediate money and reject the ultimate reward? Many would! Many are! And that is INSANE! Consider your life, teen-agers. What will it produce in the future? What kind of happiness will you experience if you put the right principles to practice in your life? Do you have the vision to look ahead a few years? Can you see the results of premarital sex experimentation from those around you in your school, on the street, in your own home town? Or does the gaily lighted world around you hold out its arms in welcome to you of its own "now" generation? Just in case you think after reading the past three articles that it isn't worth it — that you'd rather have your "fun" now — be sure to read the next article in this continuing series. We'll show you what kind of a world it will be like as you become THE ESTABLISHMENT. As we said to the fellows in the last month's article, "You have to grow up — you can't forever stay a teen-ager." Pretty soon you'll be twenty, then twenty-five, and then "over the hill" into the "older generation" at thirty. What will the world be like when you are thirty? Will the pill, pot, and all that go with them take over? Will the "in-crowd" run the governments of the world — and if so, what kind of a society will exist? You'll be shocked at the different WORLD TOMORROW in which you can live!
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