Michelle McKinney Hammond - The Power of Being a Woman: Secrets to Getting the Life You Want and the Love You Need

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Verses marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Verses marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Verses marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.

Verses marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

Verses marked AMP are taken from The Amplified Bible, Copyright 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Verses marked NEB are taken from The New English Bible, copyright Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press 1961, 1970. All rights reserved.

Verses marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible, Copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189 USA. All rights reserved.

Verses marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Cover by Koechel Peterson & Associates, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Cover photo: Tom Henry / Koechel Peterson & Associates, Inc.

Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.

THE POWER OF BEING A WOMAN

Formerly The Power of Femininity

Copyright 1999/2004 by Michelle McKinney Hammond

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

ISBN 978-0-7369-4014-6 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-4015-3 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McKinney Hammond, Michelle, 1957

The power of being a woman / Michelle McKinney Hammond.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-7369-1249-5

1. Christian womenReligious life. 2. African American womenReligious life. 3. Women in the BibleBiography. I. Title.

BV4527.M419 2004

248.843DC22

2004002117

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To my mother, Norma McKinney, who taught me, by example, to rejoice in being a woman. Not only did you fill my life with all the wonders of femininity, but you gave me the precious gift of sharing my life with many mothers.

The women in my family are each extraordinary in their own right. They have reflected the beauty, the grace, and the triumph of the feminine spirit to me, a little girl who watched them all in wonder. I pray that I have become a composite of the best parts of them all.

Alexandra Petrona Branker

Sarah Ayodele Sam

Charity Hammond

Eglantine White

Ernesta Forde

Marion Arkaah

Anna Efua Hammond

I love you all.

To my Harvest House familythank you for laboring with me. Bob Hawkins, Jr., LaRae Weikert, Barb Gordon, as well as all who work to bring my books to life and make them reach the world.

I appreciate you more than words can say.

Nicolethank you for being there.

You are such a great sister. Im so proud of the wife and mother you are. I love you so much!

Sheilakeep me straight, girl.

Sophiakeep fussing. Ha ha!

Staceykeep telling me the truth.

Nanakeep me focused.

Amandakeep being a calming force.

Charlotte, Karen, Michelle, Brenda, Theresakeep supporting me and asking the hard questions.

Keep the laughter coming. What women! You make me celebrate sisterhood all the more!

Jeff Morrow, Bill Trammell, Derek Tripplett, Kevin Whalum, Dwayne Bryant, and Pastor Ghandimy precious buds, protectors and confidants.

What can I say? Thanks for affirming that being a for-real woman is a good thing!

Contents

Relationships between men and womenboth platonic and romanticare in trouble. It is as if all the actors in the play of love have forgotten their lines and staging directions. What was supposed to be a classic romance has turned into a tragedy with all of the players doing nothing more than stepping on one anothers toes and limping offstage to their respective dressing rooms. The audience is left confused, while the actors themselves are befuddled as to what really happened.

The popular theater line, There are no small parts, only small actors, seems appropriate here. Men and women are different and were created so deliberately by God. Yet present-day moral issues and the fight for equal rights have left most men and women confused about who they are, where they fit, and what they mean to one another. Women have felt devalued and powerless. This causes them to embrace the modern-day opinion that they must operate by male standards in order to gain respect in the world. But the real tragedy is that the transition back to being a soft woman after leaving the hardness of the boardroom becomes more and more difficult. It is safe to say many have lost their way back to femininity.

Oh, the backlash this creates in male/female relationships! The anxiety it causes in the spirits of women who cant quite put their finger on what is wrong! Its truly overwhelming. The Power of Being a Woman is a journey back to the basics to reclaim the pieces of self that countless women have lost in the struggle to validate their own sense of worth.

Through biblical insights in light of modern-day illustrations, Gods original design for woman will be explored, thus supplying a map back to the garden, so to speak. It is my prayer that this book will liberate, heal, and release women to celebrate who they were created to be and discover the true source of their value and power.

S omewhere between her home

and a placard demanding equal rights

she got lost

wandering past the garden

following where the serpent pointed

she turned left instead of right

and got off track

and though the scenery looked vaguely familiar

a frown of consternation

began to crease her brow

as she realized

it was taking her

far too long

to reach her desired destination

still she determined to go

yet another mile

before turning off her chosen path

perhaps she was being too anxious

and as she wandered

looking for a marker

to get her bearings

man wondered where shed gone

as she ventured too far to hear

his need for her

or her children crying

and they too lost their way

trying to follow her

misled by traces of her perfume in the air

the memory of a gentle touch

an encouraging word