Introducing

 I want my first post to be an introductory post into the motive behind this new adventure. But I want this blog to be as little about myself as the author as possible. My aim is for my life to be an introduction to others to Jesus Christ and not to me, Bethany May Eganda Achom. However, it is important to have some brief knowledge of who I am if you want to continue reading this blog, to understand the journey on how I got on this exciting path in life to use my calling to honour and glorify my Lord and Saviour.

My name is Bethany, and I was raised with my brother on the back of a sheep and fruit farm in East Sussex, England, the home of my father and with my mother from Johannesburg, South Africa. Twenty-five years later I am now newly married to a wonderful man of God born in Uganda and raised in London, that I met through my beautiful church. We live in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, in a two-bedroom apartment as we embark on our new life as a family together. My husband is pastoring a new branch of our church at the university where he is studying his Phd and I work part-time as a qualified physiotherapist, and the rest of my time is devoted to being a wife, homemaker, and building the church.

I was raised with my dad’s parents and mother’s mum nearby to me whom had a huge influential impact on my upbringing. I watched my dad’s mother bake her own bread and cakes whilst growing her own vegetables and fruits, rearing chickens and looking after a beautiful country home. My Grandpa had been the provider going out to work whilst my grandmother remained home as a traditional housewife raising four children. My mum’s mother had become a born-again Christian after moving to the UK from South Africa and pushed to expose me to the Lord through church services, camps, Bible studies, and Christian media from a young age. As I grew older and became more influenced by my peers than my elders I began to form my own rebellious opinions. Firstly, I thought the idea of being a housewife, a mother, and a homemaker was boring, oppressive, and a waste of a life. Secondly, I thought that giving my all to God was also boring, oppressive, and a waste of a life. So instead, I quickly turned to atheism, feminism, and what I was deluded into thinking was ‘freedom’ through living a life of rebellion, drugs, alcohol, boys and unhinged behaviour. I don’t have time right now to go into the details of all of that, but soon my depression and anxiety became further out of control, until a friend at university led me to Christ and established me into the wonderful church family that I am still a part of today. (I have spent the past year writing a book on my full testimony that when finished I will publish).

When I was very young, I spent all my time in the school playground at the writing desk making stories, and constantly enjoyed my spare time writing little books at home. Whenever anybody asked the classic question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I would always say an author and a mother. They were my two passions. If I wasn’t creating a story in my vivid imagination, I was pushing around prams to take care of my baby-born or baby Annabel dolls. But as this world began to shape me and corrupt me, I soon pushed those dreams aside and forced myself into new desires. I had moulded the view that women have to be career driven and that was the only way to be a strong and successful woman. I studied hard to become a physiotherapist and I had mapped out a plan of my life and business expanding into veterinary physiotherapy. Do not be mistaken, I love working in health care and growing up as a dedicated equestrian I love the veterinary industry and all things animal related. I spent most of my childhood and teenage years outdoors exploring nature, riding ponies, and enjoying the beauty of the British countryside by fruit picking, hatching chicks and ducklings, and feeding lambs. However, I believe that I had been wrongly using my desires to attempt to live my life serving man, promoting myself into success, and working for Pharaoh to build a money motivated empire that would take me away from the true meaning of life.

Over the years as I have grown in my walk of faith the Holy Spirit has slowly renewed my mind and transformed my heart to open my eyes to the true purpose of my calling. This is very much centred around becoming the woman that my creator made me to be. I believe that it was no mistake that God placed those desires in my heart to be an author and a mother. I believe that it was no mistake that God had placed in my heart for me to love the beautiful nature He had surrounded me with and gave me the knowledge to nurture it. I believe that the influences of the grandmothers God had given me was with a purpose to teach an example to me of who he had purposed me to become. And I have decided to walk in this beautiful calling.

I knew that getting married was the best opportunity God had been presenting me with and I spent a lot of time in a local garden praying for direction from the Lord on where to go with my life once marrying my now husband. I can’t believe that I used to view marriage as a trap to supress women, yet marriage has given me the opportunity to serve God at a greater capacity than ever and to make me the happiest I have been in my life so far. During those hours in the prayer garden God taught me a lot about my identity as a woman of God and what I should invest the time He has blessed me with on earth to do. Here are just a few of the verses the Holy Spirit led me to and what I learnt:

1.        “She seeks wool and flax, And willingly works with her hands. She is like the merchant ships, She brings her food from afar. She also rises while it is yet night, And providers food for her household, And a portion for her maidservants. She considers a field and buys it; From her profits she plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength, And strengthens her arms. She perceives that her merchandise is good, And her lamp does not go out by night.” – Proverbs 31:13-18 (NKJV).
Many Christian women have heard of being a ‘Proverbs 31’ woman and from studying the advice that the mother of King Lemuel gave to him about what kind of woman he should take for a wife I learnt a lot on how I should be spending my time as a woman of God. I learnt that to be a Proverbs 31 woman I should be resourceful. I must know how to make use of the blessed resources that God has given me and how to live sustainably with them, and to make an abundance from these materials. I must use the hands God has given me to make something good and useful to benefit those around me. The woman is a caring and nurturing person who looks out for the needs of others and wants to help them. She is somebody that works hard and provides food, nourishments and health to the people God has given her to care for. By no means is she lazy but diligent and hardworking, rising whilst it is night to take care of her household. But most importantly she is somebody that strengthens herself in the Lord through building herself up in the Word of God.

2.        “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God.” – 1 Corinthians 11:7-12 (NKJV).
I know that the scripture written by Apostle Paul here has caused controversy and discussion on women wearing headscarves for a long time. When I prayed and meditated on the verses here I remember feeling so liberated about who God had made me to be as a woman and felt more fulfilled about living as a wife, because God has made the woman to be the glory of the man. Women were created for the purpose of living alongside, serving, and being the glory of the man. To be a woman without the spiritual covering of a man, whether that is a father, a Pastor, or a husband, is very dangerous. There are sadly many ladies in the world today that due to having no male role models or figures in their lives they have become lost and confused.

 

3.        “And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.’ Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman Because she was taken out of Man.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” – Genesis 2:18-24 (NKJV).

Then if we go to the beautiful creation of the first woman. The woman (Eve) was created out of the man and to be a helper to the man (Adam). Eve was created with purpose to be a help.

Now I don’t believe at all that women are inferior or less important than men in the eyes of God. Neither do I believe that women should be oppressed, controlled, or abused by men, because men are also commanded to love women the way that Christ loves the church (Ephesians 5:25). I don’t believe that women shouldn’t be educated or can’t have jobs, and I also don’t believe that every woman is called to be a wife or a mother. What I do believe from the Bible is that all women were created to help, to be the glory of men, and to live as resourceful, caring, nurturing, and hardworking people, in whatever capacity God has called her to do that in.

Therefore, I wanted to create a modern platform to express the joy and beauty that Jesus who is the same yesterday, today, and forever has provided us with as women when we choose to obey to walk in the way that God has created for us. I don’t want to be an influencer, but rather share the wonderful journey that God is leading me on to learn who He made me to be so that I may glorify Him in every small step of my life. My life is not for my own selfish ambition but to honour God and I want to form a community with other women so that many will know that desiring to be a wife, being a mother, and being a homemaker is more than enough, satisfying and fulfilling. I want to learn to utilise the gifts God has granted me with, so please join me as I write more of what the Lord places onto my heart, and as I share my messy and imperfect journey on learning how to be a homemaker and a woman of God (because I have been humbled into realising I am a complete novice when it comes to knowing how to be a godly woman). Many extreme views in the feminist world have gone to great lengths to express that men and women were created equally which is not true and a deception from the enemy to take women away from the happiness that God has for them. Men and Women are loved equally by God but they do not have equal roles to perform on this earth. We were created differently. We were fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).