[1]WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)–Dorothy K. Patterson has dedicated much of her scholarly life to writing about the importance and dignity of being a wife and mother against a tide of popular culture.
In conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Kingdom Family Rally June 16 in Phoenix, Patterson, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and Crossway Publishing have re-released an expanded and updated version of her 1990 booklet, “Where’s Mom? The High Calling of Wife and Mother in Biblical Perspective.” The booklet will be available at the Southern Baptist Convention.
Patterson is the wife of Paige Patterson, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is a well-known author on theological issues of womanhood and has written such books as “BeAttitudes for Women,” Handbook for Minister’s Wives and The Family. She is also editor of The Woman’s Study Bible.
The timing of the booklet’s re-release is important, Patterson said, not only because of the rally but also because the family is under “unprecedented attack” by popular culture.
“God’s first institution, the cornerstone, arching metaphor under which He reveals Himself is under assault,” Patterson said. That is evidenced, she said, by the statistics on family problems and breakups in ministers’ homes being roughly parallel to the rest of the country.
In her booklet, Patterson traces the biblical roots of the importance of homemaking and motherhood. She encourages women, through the nurturing truth of God’s Word, to give the best of themselves to their husbands and children, thereby glorifying God.
[2]“In the quest to be all you are meant to be, you must not forget what you are meant to be,” Patterson writes. “The question has never been whether or not a woman wants the best for her husband and children and even for herself. Rather, the real question is this: Is being someone’s wife and another’s mother really worth the investment of a life?”
The “secular presuppositions” of culture, Patterson notes, do not consider these roles to be worth it, while, from a biblical standpoint, homemaking and motherhood are “divine assignments.”
What’s more, she argues, being a wife and mother bring fulfillment and self-esteem. There is nothing in Scripture, she writes, that implies women are inferior to men or incapable. But each role has its own assignment.
“Any attitude or action suggesting a woman’s insignificance, inferiority or lack of personhood originated in the Fall,” Patterson writes in reference to the Garden of Eden. “The stigma of inferiority is no more appropriate for the wife than it would be for Christ.”
Terms like submission and authority are not sinful or evil, despite the arguments of feminists, Patterson said, explaining that they are used to describe relationships both inside and outside the family and also point to Jesus’ high example of servanthood.
It is only by recovering a devotion to the biblical principles for family and marriage that the church will ever hope to stand against the assaults of the world, especially on this issue, Patterson said.
[3]The updated version of the booklet also comes with a Bible study to promote deeper reflection and biblical guidance for women to understand their roles as wives and mothers.
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