By Reni M. Valenzuela
Women are movers of movers. They don’t just take on roles and contribute; they are essential.
God created them with a special purpose—as cohabitants of the earth with all creation—through whom men find completion and fulfillment.
Without women, the world is half-full, half-empty, and only half-existent.
All are equal and “are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26).
As St. Paul states in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Women are not in competition with men but in partnership with them.
They are designed to complement and fill what is lacking in men, making them whole.
Together, they are a universal force to reckon with.
“You and Me Against the World” isn’t just a song by Paul Williams or a theme in Romeo and Juliet—the love between a man and a woman has the power to awaken a world filled with pride, selfishness, and hate.
Women are a unique species, empowered and wired in ways many men are unwilling to accept.
For example, wives possess instincts that husbands often lack.
This leads me to think of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., whom I personally consider better than any of his predecessors since Diosdado Macapagal—for reasons that set him apart, despite his flaws and shortcomings, and because of his wise and supportive First Lady, Liza Araneta Marcos.
There are indeed situations in married life where husbands must listen to their wives over their own natural inclinations.
“My ability to persuade my wife to marry me was quite my most brilliant achievement … Of course, it would have been impossible for any ordinary man to have gotten through what I had to go through in peace and war without the devoted aid of what we call, in England, one’s better half.” — Winston Churchill
But why do some ministers seem overly “theologically correct” in their views and treatment of women in the church?
Were they trained in seminaries to believe and preach that women should be silent?
Citing 1 Corinthians 14:34, which prohibits women from speaking and requires them to “be in submission, as the law says,” some ministers limit women’s roles in apostolic work as if we still lived in the time of the first apostles.
Why confine God to what you can read in the Bible, whether in or out of context?
God is far greater than the 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament, from Genesis to Revelation.
He is infinitely bigger than all of man’s theologies combined.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” — Isaiah 55:8-9
Man cannot—and will not—be complete without woman.
Eve came into being as a “helpmate” to Adam.
“… the two shall become one flesh.” — Mark 10:8
And so it was meant to be.
Great men in history would not have achieved their nobility, ingenuity, and heroism were it not for the love of their lives.
Who can truly determine how much spiritual guidance and inspiration Jose Rizal drew from Josephine Bracken while writing Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo?
I, for one, could not have composed over 200 songs had it not been for the women who inspired me (just inspired me, nothing else) and gave me wings to fly.
I would not have won the grand prize in a nationwide live telecast painting contest at age 14 if not for my high school crush at the time.
But best of all, I would not be the Reni M. Valenzuela I am today without my strong-willed wife.
God made and molded us (and continues to do so) into the man and woman He purposed us to be, through good and bad times:
“For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do us part.”
I cannot imagine living as a human being without at least one woman existing on this earth.
Happy International Women’s Month to everyone—especially men, not just women.
Email: renivalenzuelaletters@yahoo.com
