The Making of Warriors

Eric Ludy says it like this in the book Authentic Beauty:

"A warrior is more than just a defender of truth and justice and a champion for the weak. A warrior is also one trained to protect what is sacred and innocent within a woman."

So let's get practical. Though you as a young woman, are not the only tool that God uses to shape us as men, you are certainly one of the most important. You are a divinely positioned map in our lives to help us discover how to get to the city of Great Manhood. But since men don't like to admit that they are ever lost, and would often rather be stuck in the middle of Kansas for days than have to consult a map, how can you, as a young woman, help get us to look at your map? Let's look at four ways that a young woman can be more effective as a mapbearer for the up-and-coming warriors in her life:

1. Be an inspiration.

Live out the kind of womanhood that inspires a man to protect. Knights in shining armor are made, in large part, by beholding fair maidens. When a man encounters the rare beauty of a set-apart young woman, he is inspired to defend what makes her beautiful and what is sacred at the core of her being.

2. Be a talker.

A man can only understand a woman when a woman helps him understand her. While this is absolutely critical in marriage, it is also important for all other types of male-female relationships. And dads and brothers are a great practice ground. Take your dad and brothers through an introductory course in understanding who you are and how you work. To do this, you will need to start communicating. When you feel one of them is being insensitive, gently let them know. When you feel you just need to be comforted by your dad, sweetly ask him to comfort you. When one of them is trying to solve you problems rather than just listen to you, tell him that you are not looking to get your problem fixed, but that you just need him to try to understand and simply validate your feelings. Then when Mr. Right strolls into your life, you will already be practiced up. Only when a man knows can a man respond.  

3. Be rescuable.

Men today have lost their sense of valor mainly because they lack the opportunities to cultivate it. So often today, women feel threatened by men who desire to help them. "I'm a woman! I can do it myself!" is the marching cry of the modern feminist regime. Just as men come across as pretty stupid for trying to make it to the city of Great Manhood without a map, women will never arrive at their destination, either, if they are unwilling to read the map that God has given them-manhood. Men stopped opening doors for women when they started getting slapped for doing it; they stopped laying their coats over mud puddles when they were accused of being chauvinistic as a result. But those simple means of expressing honor and value to women are baby steps toward something far greater-becoming a self-sacrificing warrior. By allowing a man to be heroic, you fan into flame the essence of what makes William Wallace.

4. Be an encourager.

Guys live on encouragement like a puppy lives off Puppy Chow. And the words of women hold a special power in a man's life. You could almost say that a man's sense of masculinity is directly proportional to the encouraging, man-making words spoken to him by the woman in his life. When a young man's simple acts of valor are noticed by the female eye, and when the female voice utters such words as "Wow!" and "That was incredible!"-it's then that young males become men of honor. The encouragement of a young woman has the power to raise a man from the valleys of Dudsville tot he mountains of Studsville.

As guys, we haven't been trained to protect femininity. We've been trained only to conquer it. But a Christ-like warrior doesn't selfishly seek to overcome obstacle (such as women with morals). Rather, he becomes an obstacle that stands in the way of all forms of impurity and injustice. A warrior doesn't complain about sacred boundary lines-he gives his life to protect them. Don't settle for anything less! Help shape the men in your life into true Christ-built warriors, and you will help redefine manhood as we know it.