Careers For Sisters

Ben Asked me to write about the challenge of choosing a career for sisters, I have to admit that at first I balked. What do I know about something that is such a personal decision for every individual? When I looked at the subject of careers in the Bible, again I came up a little short. Adam and Eve were gardeners? Did Noah have a day job? Or Jonah? Or Samson? Does “mighty hunter before the Lord” count as a career? What about the patriarchs? What would they put down on a resume ­”living in tents?”

I suppose one could consider ruling the nation a career path for a number of Old Testament men and women, but it was seldom something they had much choice about. When I got to the New Testament, things were a little better. After all, Peter was a fisherman; Paul was a tent-maker; Matthew was a tax collector, and even Jesus was a carpenter — though we never hear of him actually making anything. But there are few clues as to how these individuals chose their careers — if they even had a choice ­and even fewer records of them actually practicing them. Their careers were so much less important than their labors in the gospel that they almost fade into the background.

And that doesn’t even start on the problem of studying careers for sisters.

Careers of Bible women

Quick — what was Sarah’s career? Ruth’s? Mary’s? I suppose most of the women we know of in the Bible were, in Paul’s words, “keepers at home.” Even those who did have jobs, such as Priscilla the tent-maker, only worked alongside their husbands. This is not surprising since we know that woman was created to be the “help meet” for man. One could argue that being a queen was a career, but again that generally falls under the heading of supporting your husband the king (unless your name happens to be Athaliah). Of course there was Rahab, who presumably had to seek new employment after learning the truth, and also the remarkably industrious example of the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31. Deborah was certainly a judge, but she must have been supported by her husband as that doesn’t seem to have been a paying position. So we are left with a few hired servants and Lydia, the Thyatirian seller of purple.

With so little to go on, one could come to the conclusion that the choice of a career is not that serious of a decision in God’s eyes. And, from an eternal perspective, perhaps that is true. Would the New Testament be any different if Paul was a cobbler rather than a tent-maker? We have a hard time picturing the apostle as a practicing tradesman, preaching and teaching on his vacations or after his shop was closed for the day. Yet it was Paul himself who said that if one doesn’t work one can’t expect to keep eating, so he must have spent an extensive portion of his life with his needle and canvas. Perhaps that is why he was able to get so much more writing done while he was in prison. Perhaps there we see our first lesson — the importance of any career takes only a distant second to the importance of our role in the truth and in the ecclesia.

However, deciding how to spend eight hours a day, fifty weeks a year of your life does seem to be a pretty major decision. For a young sister, facing the kaleidoscope of college and career options when she is barely out of adolescence can be almost overwhelming. The choice of a career path is even more difficult for us than for our brothers and boyfriends, since our lives are so much more affected by marriage and childbirth. Statistically, most of us will end up marrying and having a family.

Children change things

We all know that if we plan to bring children into the world, our great responsibility is, like Abraham, to “command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment” (Gen. 18:19) Unless your husband has the temperament to stay at home with children (mine didn’t – we tried), this places some restrictions on the choice of a career path. Any field that is not compatible with spending a good chunk of your day with your children when they arrive — whether by running a home-based business, working part-time or opposite shifts, or being a full time homemaker — should be a topic for serious prayer and self-examination.

Teaching seemed obvious

I have to admit that for me the choice was simple. From the time I first had a glimmer of the concept of school, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. Teaching has good prospects for using your skills in the truth and requires only a reasonable amount of education. For me, it seemed a perfect fit. With God’s blessing the choice has been a fairly good one, providing a steady income when it was sorely needed and now allowing me to work part-time in a meaningful career I enjoy while still spending most of my day home with my daughters.

For many sisters, I know the decision was not so easy. Lacking a clear objective or a supportive family or the required financing for education can make choosing a career a heartbreakingly difficult decision. Far too many never have the opportunity to make a choice at all, pushed by circumstance into a position they may end up loving, tolerating or hating.

Yet the decisions don’t go away. Do you apply for scholarships? Pursue a full or part-time job until something better comes along? Take out enormous loans to finance an education you aren’t sure you want or need or will ever use? So many of these questions have no clear answers. We all know of the sisters who thought they would never need an education or career, yet due to death or divorce or unanticipated spinsterhood have had to support themselves or their families for many years, even a lifetime.

On the flip side, how many college-educated, career-intending women are now home raising their children? We may think we know where our life is headed, but determined bachelorettes have found themselves surprised by romance and family, conversely simple-minded romantics have found themselves surprisingly still single, while content homemakers have been blown away by circumstances that have made it necessary to change the direction of their lives.

Trusting in God

All this would seem rather depressing, were it not for our Heavenly Father watching every instant of our lives. Modem culture tries its best to convince us that we are truly in charge of our own destiny, the masters of our own little universe. For true servants of God down through the ages, however, this has never been true. Faith, we remember, is the evidence of things not seen, not something to only hold to when the way is clear. Perhaps for us as sisters this is especially true. When we look into our own future, there is so much that is not seen. Yet we know we are to, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight” (Prov. 3:5-6 NIV) This is just as true in the mundane choices of school and work as it is in the more “holy” situations to which we usually apply the words. Any situation, any problem, any decision that we trust to God, He is able to guide us in the way that is best for us to be prepared for His kingdom.

Of course, all this is assuming that we do make choices when they come up. As females, we perhaps have the tendency more than males to let life happen to us rather than making conscious decisions about our lives, our future and our faith. Yet this is far from the attitude we see in the scriptures. I challenge you to find one women of faith mentioned by name who is not on record as making some action or decision for herself. Whether it’s the simple, profound prayer of a Hannah or the bold, decisive action of an Esther, daughters of God recognize that key principle, “Show me thy faith without thy works, I will show thee my faith by my works” (Jam. 2:18).

Reasons are important

So where does that leave us as sisters in choosing our vocation in life? Like so many other aspects of our walk, it is not so much what we do that God looks at, but the reasons behind it. When Athaliah assumed control of God’s people, she was an evil usurper; when Deborah did so, she was showing faith and courage. We know our scripturally defined roles, but our Father gives us wide latitude for how we carry them out. Many wives will find, sooner or later, that the best place for them to be is home raising the next generation to love and fear God. However, for others, being a help meet for their husbands necessitates something different altogether. Many young sisters will find that their best choices for employment or education are those that prepare them for their future roles as wives and mothers. Now more than ever there are numerous fields that can provide part time or at-home income for us when our children are small, if we have the faith and initiative to seek them out. Others, however, will find their calling in an entirely different direction. So we pray; we ask questions; we listen to advice; we explore new possibilities; we study; we work; we keep our eyes open; we pray some more. In the end we “fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Eccl. 12:13).