Navigating Gender and Womanhood w/ Jennifer Strickland

Is the crisis facing womanhood in today's society leaving young women confused and stripped of their dignity? Join us on the Coffee and Bible Time podcast as we engage with Jennifer Strickland, author of "I Am a Woman," to uncover a powerful solution rooted in biblical wisdom. Jennifer introduces us to the term “ezer kenegdo,” describing women as strong helpers and rescuers, akin to God's own role. We explore how grounding our understanding of gender in biblical teachings can restore a woman’s identity and empower her with a sense of godly purpose.

In our conversation, we delve into the profound significance of womanhood through the lens of Scripture. Jennifer passionately explains the concept of being the "apple of God's eye," emphasizing that each woman is under His constant watchful care. Amidst the changing definitions of gender, we discuss the crucial role parents play in affirming and protecting their daughters' unique identities, especially in the context of sports and societal expectations. This episode underscores the irreplaceable value of understanding one's true identity as a daughter of God.

We critically evaluate the influence of contemporary culture on children's perceptions of sexuality and gender identity. Jennifer urges parents to be vigilant about their children's exposure to potentially harmful content and advocates for open, Christ-centered conversations at home. We also celebrate young women of faith who are making a bold impact for Christ on social media and in educational settings. Listen in and discover how you can support and empower the next generation to uphold the traditional definition of womanhood with courage and truth.

Jennifer's Favorites:
Book: I Am a Woman
IG: @jenniferstrickland_author)
Go-To Bible: Holman CSB
Favorite App/Website: YouVersion

Transcript

Ellen Krause: 0:04

At the Coffee and Bible Time podcast. Our goal is to help you delight in God's Word and thrive in Christian living. Each week, we talk to subject matter experts who broaden your biblical understanding, encourage you in hard times and provide life-building tips to enhance your Christian walk. We are so glad you have joined us. Welcome back to the Coffee and Bible Time podcast. I'm Ellen, your host, and today we are going to be talking about a crisis that is facing our society and that is womanhood is under attack from cultural forces trying to redefine what it means to be female, and this confusion is damaging young women. It's stripping away their dignity and sense of identity. But what if we could help young people be the best that they can be in the skin they are?

Ellen Krause: 1:08

Our guest today, J ennifer Strickland, author of the book I Am a Woman, offers a solution to help women align their minds with the truth that God formed them with great love and intention, and she believes it's time for women to reclaim their unique identity and affirm God's design for womanhood. So we want you to come along with us as we return to the ancient scrolls of the Old Testament, where gender is woven into the language like a beautiful tapestry and there is a goldmine of knowledge waiting to be discovered. J ennifer Strickland, is the founder of You Are More and the host of the I Am A Woman podcast. She is a sought-after speaker, a former model and the author of several books, including Girl Perfect, more Beautiful Than you Know, beautiful Lies and 21 Myths Even Good Girls Believe About Sex. Jennifer holds a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism and a master's degree in writing and literature. She lives with her husband and three children in Texas. Please welcome Jennifer.

Jennifer Strickland: 2:29

Thank you so much for having me on the show. I'm excited to join the Coffee and Bible Time.

Ellen Krause: 2:37

Welcome to the Coffee and Bible Time community here, where I think our listeners are going to be really fascinated today about diving into this topic. You know, historically there was a time when people derived their definitions from the Bible, so I thought a good place to start with us would be kind of grounding us in what the Bible has to say about women.

Jennifer Strickland: 3:09

Absolutely. You know, woman comes on the scene in Genesis I believe it's Genesis. Well, G od creates a male and female, but in Genesis in Genesis 127, but in Genesis 2, 18, he says it is not good for man to be alone. And women comes on the scene right after God has given Adam the command not to eat from the tree. So soon as he gives Adam the command not to eat from the tree, he says he's going to it's not good for him to be alone, which in the biblical Hebrew aloneness, means devastation, it means destruction. And then he says he is going to need a helper corresponding to him, or some versions say helper suitable. The original language is as, as their connecto, which is what I think we should talk about, that is the Hebrew word that God first introduces.

Jennifer Strickland: 4:14

Woman as and as our connecto is a helper or rescuer, someone who will be able to help him in a way that he cannot help himself, and a connecto means opposite or corresponding to, so it basically means someone who's going to oppose him if he's going the wrong way. And so he says look, he's not going to be able to resist this temptation alone, alone. He's going to be driven by his own desires and the lust of his flesh. But he's going to need a companion, basically in the garden, to walk beside him, to help him, to challenge him, to hold him up, to pray for him, to shield him. And that is what a woman is. She is a strong helper opposite, and the word is there. It's the same word that God uses for himself, and a lot of people don't realize that the word woman is not at all undefinable. We are defined by the fact that we're made in the image of God and God calls himself a strong helper and rescuer, and that is the same word that he uses for a woman.

Ellen Krause: 5:32

That's such an excellent place to start and it really, like you said, it goes back to the very first book of the Bible, where God makes that very clear. God makes that very clear. You indicate in your thesis for the book that if we return to a biblical understanding of gender, that we will attract people to it.

Jennifer Strickland: 6:06

Well, we're going to get our definitions from somewhere right. Legacy is learned, and the legacy of womanhood is either going to be learned by the images that women see in the media or pornography. So if you take pornography, there's billions and billions and billions of images of women in pornographic society. And if we get our definition of womanhood from that, girls are going to reject their gender. They're going to say I don't want to be demeaned. Reject their gender. They're going to say I don't want to be demeaned, I don't want to be spat on, I don't want to be asphyxiated, I don't want to be hurt, I don't want to be a thing, I don't want to be that, or their mothers were abused or domineering and that their mothers didn't exemplify a gracious, helpful, right, rescuing woman. You know who was going to come alongside others and help them in their time of need, and do it with humility and gentleness and grace. So what we have now is such and also feminist role models rejected that rejected the home, that rejected life in the womb, that rejected marriage as fulfilling those mantras that they put into the culture about womanhood have really not been helpful for young girls If we go back to the Bible's definition of women, that we are the strong helpers of mankind, and girls begin to understand that our name is an action.

Jennifer Strickland: 8:07

In the Bible it's not like just about chromosomes or body parts, okay, like it might be in the English language. In God's language, in Hebrew, it's a language of transcendence. So that means there's an action of the body and the soul and the spirit. There's an action in being female. Being female means life giving. It's a verb, it's an action. And so being a woman is a life giving, action in helping mankind achieve their purpose and protecting them from sin. And so when women start to talk about the language of biblical womanhood, we have to understand it's a verb, it's an action. And so we have to inspire and teach the next generation the meaning of the word. Woman is life giver, life giving Her name means life. And you know we recently saw Victoria's Secret had a big advertisement over, you know, across a woman's naked body undefinable. You know our name is undefinable. Well, it's not undefinable. It's not undefinable and it's really important because the dictionaries have changed the definition of male and female, man and woman. It is really really important right now that girls understand their name means life.

Ellen Krause: 10:33

Yes, I love how you stressed in your just that God's word is unchanging. But then you have all of these references to how modern day dictionaries have been changing the definitions. Where are we at today as far as what the culture is defining a woman as?

Jennifer Strickland: 11:03

is defining a woman as that womanhood is a feeling or a costume. That it's either. If you feel like a woman, you are one. So then that tops into the trans movement and the gender dysphoria that has been sweeping the nation, really that if someone feels like they're a girl, they must be a girl, they must be female. So it's either a feeling or it's a costume. In other words, if I dress like a woman, I can walk into your bathroom, I can walk onto your sports team, I can, you know, be in your sororities and same sex spaces, uh, locker rooms, gyms and so forth, because I'm dressed like a woman.

Jennifer Strickland: 11:42

However, biblically, being a female is it? It? It's body, soul and spirit. It means that you are, your body, is able to give life and even even if you not able to have children, your name still means life giver. Woman is still the life of the home, of the family, of the community and of the nation. She is one who brings life in all of her relationships. She's one who helps bring out the best in others, in all of her relationships. So, in God's language, it's an action, it's not a costume, it's not a feeling, it is an identity.

Ellen Krause: 12:28

Thank you so much for kind of clarifying, just because I think today you know like it's so fluid, you know it seems like everything is changing on a moment by moment basis and, coming back to what the Bible says, can ground us so much. Jennifer, tell us a little bit about some of the effects that we're seeing in children, particularly as a result of sort of the social construct changing of sort of the social construct changing Right.

Jennifer Strickland: 13:04

So the lie that's being permeated in the culture is that gender is only a social construct, it's only what people feel or believe about themselves.

Jennifer Strickland: 13:11

And so one of the greatest, the biggest detriments of this movement on children is the after affirmation only model of therapy, and it's not just in therapeutic environments, it's in schools, it's in familial relationships, that if this child believes they are neither male nor female which you know is biologically impossible but they call themselves non-binary, neither male nor female, you know, or I'm really a boy, and so forth, the family, the doctors, the therapists, the teachers, the entire community is being told that they have to affirm that lie. And if they don't affirm that lie, they're dangerous and unsupportive. They're labeled dangerous and unsupportive, which is indicative of a thought reform movement, reform movement. So when people are punished for telling the truth and they're ostracized for not believing a lie, because it is a lie that a boy can be a girl, it's just not biologically possible and that's a really a painful truth I want to say that, ellen, that's a really painful truth for people who are struggling with gender dysphoria, which is the confusion about their gender um.

Jennifer Strickland: 14:46

But this is the only mental illness in which therapists are being mandated to confirm the lies that child is believing. So if I, like I, struggled with anorexia, my therapist was not going to confirm You're right, you know you need a tummy tuck. You know you're right, you're fat. You know you need to tummy tuck. You know you're right, you're fat. You know you should be taking fat burners. No, my therapist needed to say no more fat burners, you. You are too thin. You're not menstruating, you're not well and when you look in the mirror, you're. You have body dysmorphia. You are seeing someone that you're really not, and I'm going to help you uncover what is going on underneath the surface and that is really the role of a therapist is that we're being told.

Jennifer Strickland: 15:41

We have to affirm the lie that they're believing, and once we affirm that lie, we then need to usher them down the road of medicalization, in which they chop off their breasts, they take testosterone and they try to turn themselves into a boy, which is a farce. They'll never be able to become a boy, a man, and so we are lying them. They're basically sheep going to the slaughter.

Ellen Krause: 16:22

I really love how you took an angle in your book to really focus on who I am and who God says that I am. So you have a number of different examples in all of the different chapters here. Would be particularly keen on hearing and tell us how that can really help us in this topic.

Jennifer Strickland: 16:59

Oh goodness, there's so much in there. I think the ezer kenegdo is really important. The meaning of helper suitable it's not really translated as helper suitable when you look at the original Hebrew. So it's really important that girls understand their value is to be strong, help and rescuers for mankind. The other one that I love is when I study the word daughter, that the word daughter in God's language means the apple of his eye.

Jennifer Strickland: 17:35

That she is the one who will continue the generations. As a female, she will continue the generations, but that God never takes his eye off of us, even in our pain, even in our sorrow, in our struggle. And if our struggles with our bodies, our struggles with our gender, wishing that we were boys, believing that boys were more powerful, that men have more opportunities, whatever it is, men are safe. Girls are not. You know whatever is going on psychologically in that girl's mind. It is a travesty that the affirmation only model is telling. You know, even husbands, fathers, grandfathers not husbands, but sorry, fathers and grandfathers that they need to call their daughter sons. You know that's going on in Canada. You know a father recently was imprisoned for not calling his daughter a son. The name son means warrior, you know. And daughters are warriors too.

Jennifer Strickland: 18:49

The woman wisdom in Proverbs is a warrior. Actually, it shouldn't be called the wife of noble character. Really, proverbs 31 should be named. If you look at the original language. It should be named the woman of valor.

Jennifer Strickland: 19:04

The women of valor so girls are, they're life givers, they're the daughters of God means to be the apple of his eye, which means that when he looks at them you can see their image dancing in the pupil of his eye, that he cares about everything that hurts us and he watches us very, very closely. The male in Hebrew, the son, has a different connotation, a different action. He is a warrior, protector, and he lays down his life for the daughter. He dies for the daughter. That's what the male, the biblical male as Jesus, was our first model that he would lay down his life to lift us up. We are very, very valued by God and it is special to know that our image is in the pupil of his eye. It is special to know that our image is in the pupil of his eye. He looks at us very, very closely and watches over us, as a father would protecting his children.

Ellen Krause: 20:19

Yeah, oh. That's such a beautiful, beautiful image, Jennifer. What personally made you so passionate about wanting to really write this book and bring the biblical perspective?

Jennifer Strickland: 20:36

There were a couple of things, I think. When the Supreme Court Justice nominee a few years ago wouldn't answer the what is a woman question and I saw the dictionaries changing too I became very concerned about the next generation and knew that not only is our name definable, but our name woman is wonderful. Affirming that, you know, a girl is not, a boy is not a girl, and all of this confusing mantras. You know even women's health. Teen Vogue you know telling. You know Teen Vogue.

Jennifer Strickland: 21:19

I've been after Teen Vogue for many years, since I wrote my first book, G irl Perfect, because I used to be in the modeling industry and I was in Vogue and I knew that they were lying to girls all along about their bodies. They, you know I go into that in my 21 myths book about sexual integrity and so forth. You know your body is a toy, sex is a game. You know a lot of these lies that Teen Vogue has been saying forever. Now they're saying it's a lie that we're created male and female. Okay, this has now crossed a line for me, um, when I see girls in sports getting seriously injured, losing their scholarships, losing their medals, losing their place after working all their lives to be swimmers, dancers, you know. Pageants, you know woman of the year was taken over by a man. This devalues the experience of being female. You know, being female is a place of vulnerability. You know I speak in women's prisons and I love going into the prisons. These women, most of them, have experienced male violence.

Jennifer Strickland: 22:38

So to say that a man dressed as a woman is a woman totally denies the experience of those that have reached out to my ministry over the years, who've been sexually abused, who've been hurt, who've lost babies, who've been infertile, lost lives from uterine cancer and breast cancer. There are experiences that are unique to women and our name is not undefinable and we are not a costume. We are the daughters of God. We are the apples of thine eye, of his eye, and our experience as females is valuable and I want to model for the next generation that we are to stand up and that we are worthy of our protections. You know, when I see these girls, you know getting third place and you know missing out on their scholarships or standing up. You know their track scholarships, their swimming medals and all of this, and I see them standing on the podium next to a man who's apparently now the best female swimmer. I want to scream and say where are the parents? Where are the mothers? Where are the Debras? Where are the Esthers? You know the wise woman in Proverbs. She takes a stand, she uses her voice to take a stand, and I want to challenge the mothers as well as the girls Do not stand for this. You're either going to have to go in and take a stand and go and speak at the school board meetings, get those books out of the libraries and be a force for change, or you're going to need to. But you got to remove your children from this lying spirit. This is a lying spirit, the spirit of Ashtara, where, you know, in the Old Testament, god would say take down the Ashtara bulls, rip them down, destroy them, purge the evil from among you. Okay, that spirit was a gender bending spirit. It was the goddess of sexuality that turned men into women, women into men. It is the spirit of revelation, the spirit of the woman who rides the beast. You know, when we study womanhood from Genesis to revelation, there are two kinds of women. Okay, there's the foolish, adulterous woman and there's a wise woman. This foolish, adulterous woman. And there's the wise woman, this foolish, adulterous woman, the one that worships sexuality. Okay, she has taken over conversation in our nation about womanhood. The wise woman takes her stand, okay, so that is the biggest thing I would say to the young women If you are raising young children, do not allow them to be under the umbrella, under the megaphone, under the teaching that sexuality is identity.

Jennifer Strickland: 25:48

This is a lie. Our sexuality is not our identity. You know when, when, when the woman who lived a sinful life, you know, fell at Jesus's feet, he didn't call her a whore, he didn't call her prostitute, he called her loved, he called her chosen. You know, when the castrated man in the book of Acts goes and, you know, talks to Philip, he's called forgiven. He's not called trans because he's castrated. Okay, sexuality is not identity, okay. And so if your children are in a school where they're worshiping the pride movement and teaching children that sexuality is identity, you've got to get them out of there. That is very unhealthy teaching. That is not our identity. Our identity is in Christ. So use your voice. That is the biggest, my biggest, and be on guard against what's funneling into their phones. This is a thought reform movement, ellen. Okay, so there's brainwashing going on, so, and it's coming also through the phones- yeah, social media.

Ellen Krause: 27:10

Tell us a little bit about what you're seeing there.

Jennifer Strickland: 27:14

Well, all of a sudden, little fourth grade girls are believing that they're bisexual, I mean you know, my son's school. You know, he's sixth grade. All these girls are coming out as bi. Now I'm in Texas. We don't teach gender fluidity. In the schools I study, I read every single word of the sex education curriculum. It's the second they start teaching that you can choose your gender. We're out, we're not doing that. Okay, Right now, the sex education curriculum being taught. They don't do pronouns, they don't do any of that stuff. Pride movement they don't do any of that stuff. Pride movement they don't do any of that stuff. In my son's school, the reason why these kids are coming and believing that they're bisexual, these girls, is because they're getting it from the pride videos On their iPhones. There's quizzes that say, are you gay? Being marketed to children, and as soon as they click on that, it tells them. They have like a fuzzy feeling when they cuddle up next to a girl at a sleepover. They're gay. Well, they're bi or something.

Jennifer Strickland: 28:20

Well, when we were kids, we saw our girlfriends naked and showering in bathing suits and we were jumping around you know, sleepovers, cuddling with our girlfriend we never the concept that we were bi, never bisexual or gay, never even occurred to most of us. Okay, those that dealt with that truly dealt with that. Okay, and that that was real. That dealt with that, truly dealt with that, okay, and that that was real. But now these kids that if they just feel a fluttery butterfly feeling when they're giggling with their girlfriends, start thinking they're bisexual. That is not. Um, the sexuality is identity. Movement is a thought reform movement. Okay, that is now from kindergartens to colleges and coming from the government. Okay, and they use thought reform tactics like brainwashing in China. It's serious and most people don't want to hear this part. And I go into depth of that at the end of my book because I want people to understand how thought reform movements happen. So we don't use, they pronoun, we don't, we don't, we cannot conform to the language of sexual and gender identity because it is a lying tongue. And we can love people, we can, I mean, we can, you know, call them what they want to be, called. They want to be, you know, whatever. We have to respect people, but we're not going to align with a lie about their gender. That's where we have to draw the line and we've got to have these conversations with the kids at home. I mean just lots of conversations.

Jennifer Strickland: 30:29

Organizations, lego and american and american girl. Don't let your girls read the american girl body image book anymore. I mean, I, I used to, my daughter used to have american girl body image books. Um, I wrote books about body image. Well, today, the american girl doll body image book, you know, tells them that they they choose their identity and if they don't like the body that they're in, they can pause their puberty with hormones and they can become a boy and they don't have to ask their parents, they can go straight to their doctor to get the hormones privately. I mean seriously, the American girl doll is is no, it's not a thing anymore. We cannot align ourself with that stuff anymore. It's really sad. Legos is doing these alphabet of identities that A is for asexual, b is for bi, t is for trans, c is for coming out. All of those things, the Disney movies, these next generation of women are going to have to do things very differently than we did.

Jennifer Strickland: 31:28

They're not going to. They're going to have to homeschool private Christian schools, study the sex ed curriculums, speak at school board meetings, turn off their phones, refuse social media. They're going to have to do a lot of different things. So, but you know what? They're born for such a time as this, right Right. They're born for such a time as this, right Right. They're born for such a time as this. They have everything they need to be warriors for truth in this generation and to remind the world what the word woman means. And that's why I wrote the book to help the next generation take a stand and define the word woman, fearlessly and courageously. And they'll. They'll be because there's the spiritual guardians of the home, the.

Jennifer Strickland: 32:15

The word woman means spiritual guardian. Okay, P aul says in in in his writing as well. The woman is actually the master of the home environment. She is the. Oh, I wish I could say the word in Greek. But we are the guardians of the home, and so we're going to have to live up to our identity. And they can do it. These girls can do it. I have total confidence, total confidence, confidence in them.

Ellen Krause: 32:49

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think that's kind of such a great point to sort of, as we wrap things up here is, you know, reminding our listeners that the Holy Spirit is in them, is in them and he will equip you and empower you and give you what you need. And to Jennifer's point, I recommend picking up a copy of her book, just because there's chapter upon chapter that will really gird your understanding of this biblical importance of womanhood. Jennifer, where can people go to find out more information about you and the book?

Jennifer Strickland: 33:49

So you can go to. Right now we want to send everybody to Amazon to buy the book, because we want to hit the conversation about gender and sexuality on Amazon, because there's so many lies there's so many lies going on there, so you can go to amazoncom to order. I am a woman taking back our name right now. You can find me on Instagram at Jennifer Strickland, underscore author. I'm also on Facebook and I've just gone on Twitter too, because there I can really talk honestly about what's going on without being banned, so you can find me at. I am a woman. Underscore U S. I am a woman. Underscore U. I am a woman. Underscore us on Twitter as well.

Ellen Krause: 34:30

Very good. Well, we will make sure we put all of those links in our show notes. Jennifer, before we go, I just want to ask you some of our favorite Bible study tool questions that we ask all of our guests what Bible is your go-to Bible and what translation is it?

Jennifer Strickland: 34:48

okay. So I really love the H olman C hristian S tandard B ible, the hcsb um, and I love the S he R eads T ruth B ible. This is one of my favorites um. For the bible study tools I use the bible app and I love the um Tare Leigh Cobble's Bible In a year, that's a really, really good structure to get through the Bible. And then when you're like, okay, that one, I don't listen to every, every um of her lessons unless I'm confused, Then I'm like wait a minute. What is going on in Numbers 19?

Jennifer Strickland: 35:29

And then Tara-Leigh Cobble on the Bible R ecap. Yeah, she'll break it down for you and you're like, okay, I can keep reading. I can keep going, so that's really helpful.

Ellen Krause: 35:40

Oh, excellent, Sounds like a great commentary source of really helping you get to understand more about the Bible. And it can be confusing, for sure, if you don't know all of the context. Well, Jennifer, thank you so much for being here to boldly share about this topic. We just pray that God's hand would be on you as you navigate this journey certainly counter cultural and we just pray that God will protect you and keep you strong and encourage you through this effort that you're doing.

Jennifer Strickland: 36:23

Thank you so much. It definitely hasn't been easy. Thank you so much. It definitely hasn't been easy. So I appreciate your prayers, and for me and for this message and for the book, because the enemy wants to take it down. You know he's a liar and he wants to say Genesis 127 is a lie. But it's a beautiful time to see the younger women of God coming out of the woodworks, so I love seeing them. You know using their voices on Instagram and TikTok and in the schools and homeschooling, and you know all of the amazing things that these younger women are doing. So I thank you so much for your ministry and all that you're doing to impact the next generation for Christ.

Ellen Krause: 37:12

Thanks, J ennifer, for our listeners out there. Get a copy of Jennifer's book I Am a Woman. We will have it linked in our show notes for your convenience. We love you all. We appreciate you listening. We would appreciate a review if you could leave that for us to help keep our podcast going. Have a blessed day.