I’m happy to be with you on this Weekly encouragement! day and happy birthday day to someone I love! And with Mother’s Day coming, I thought the message for today was very timely, three women sharing their love for Jesus and talking about challenges they’ve faced being women in ministry. It is my honor to join with you! Our modern world doesn’t have to look far back to experience difficulties and varying views of women in ministry. Oh, actually I’m kidding because this still is a present reality, though very much not as stigmatized as this used to be. Though the scripture has been with us for hundreds of decades, it’s taken a few moments to become accustomed to the importance of women in ministry. Yet there are women in the Bible who are key participants and leaders. Christianity is the first and strongest advocate of women, and Jesus taught us to value women. It wasn’t a question in his teaching. Today’s guests clearly demonstrate that love for Jesus, and, more importantly, understanding the love of God in their own heart, is the key to sharing the gospel and being a minister of the gospel. 1 Corinthians 13 says that if we don’t have this love, we are like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Possibly especially today, love and nurture are essential in ministry, and women have a strong natural nurturing nature (NNN)! I see this as significant because of very broken lives present in society. I don’t see this as secondary, I see this as equipping the body of Christ, just as the Bible admonishes us that we are the body of Christ and, at the same time, we are the bride of Christ. This doesn’t diminish men in ministry. I believe it’s the exact opposite in that healthy men and women are important in the time we are living, leading up to the return of Christ. He wants us to be equipped fully, and the only way to be equipped fully is to realize that we each have a calling and we strengthen one another in our calling. Jesus came through Mary by the Holy Spirit, prophesied thousands of years beforehand. We don’t coo and awe the men in our lives because of this! We accept one another as brothers and sisters, not as lesser and greater. Building one another up. It’s a blessing to be able to understand this is who we are. It is freedom to understand this. I know this is challenging to some, though I’m grateful for pioneers such as the women in today’s Weekly encouragement! Allow what God is teaching you to challenge and encourage your faith, and to always examine if what you are learning is encouraging you to build up those around you, building them into pillars of faith for your family and communities and beyond. Please know I’m praying for you because I love you.