I’m writing this at the turn of the new year, when many of us begin thinking about a Bible reading plan for the next twelve months. I personally use the last week of December to plan my study focus for the next year along with my annual goals. However, there is no bad time to choose a reading plan! You don’t need a new year to adapt your study, and you can quit a reading plan that isn’t serving you anytime. Read that again!
This Christmas, I get to hold my three month old son in my arms. I get to gather my two older daughters together, rumpled in their ballerina pajamas, on Christmas morning. I get to hear their hearts beat as I hug them and see the life dance in their eyes.
Not every mother gets to experience that this Christmas.
![Modesty & the Real Weaker “Brother” [The Women’s Issues Series]](https://phyliciamasonheimer.com/wp-content/uploads/jeremy-bishop-h9NU6laTNzM-unsplash-1080x675.jpg)
Don’t cause a brother to stumble.
We’ve heard this phrase applied to modesty, but do we really know the context of Romans 14? Who is the weaker brother – the man, or the woman? The answer varies based on who we’re talking about, but that’s not something you learned if you grew up in purity culture. In PC, the weaker brother is always the man.
The tears came hot, pouring from the corners of my eyes in the dark, forming two spots on the pillow behind my ears. Josh was asleep, Van was snoring the soft purr of a baby in his bassinet. But I couldn’t sleep.
I closed my eyes and saw them again.
The baby born still and cold.
The child hungry and thin, his eyes looking widely at the camera as if it could feed him.
![Synthesizing Christianity and Feminism [The Women’s Issues Series]](https://phyliciamasonheimer.com/wp-content/uploads/lindsey-lamont-hUWINRMPvsc-unsplash-1080x675.jpg)
Jesus was a feminist… or was He? Within the church we see a sharp divide between Christians who call themselves feminist and those who go so far as to take the label “anti-feminist” – and everything in between. Feminism has morphed and changed with each of its four waves, with the mission developing as time goes on. The feminism of 2020 is not the same as the feminism of Susan Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.