Misused Silence (Ecc 4-5)

"And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him - a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice."

We may work together as a Body of Christ just like those lionesses:

"Using their prowess, lionesses work together to protect the pride's cubs... Lionesses realize that cubs of similar age have a greater chance of survival due to equal access to food and training. All these golden babies tumbling around means there is no lack of nursing mothers. Because the pride consists of related females, the lionesses will nurse and train one another's young... if they go too far, a mama lioness is always nearby to provide a growl or cuff to the one that gets out of hand." -Lioness Arising, by Lisa Bevere

If those lionesses could work together, then how much more could we work together as spiritual mothers and spiritual fathers for those spiritual nuturing cubs? Proverb 6:6 tells us to watch those ants and learn, in the same way, we should learn from those lionesses through Lisa Bevere's observance and stand up to voice our stand to protect, to build up those cubs equally.

Lisa Bevere (Lioness Arising) spoke her voice when her son showed her the content of the book:

"There was an assortment of thoughts of teen suicide, vandalism, spouse and child abuse, violence, underage drinking, alcoholism, parental abandonment, and shoplifting. We also came to a highly objectionable sexual passage. I determined I would call the school in the morning and request that Arden be assigned another book to read. But later that day, I realized the other parents had no idea what was in this book. Was it right that only my son was protected from its content? Knowing what I did, could I remain silent? Wasn't it my responsibility to protect these other children and parents as well? She spoke. Within the week the book was pulled. They were glad an error in the selection process had been discovered. Throughout this process I didn't pull the Christian card. I didn't rant and rave at the school's teachers or administration."

I love Lisa Bevere's example! She voiced her opinion to protect all sons and daughters who are not her own as well! Even she didn't preach about Jesus to them, but she showed the character of Jesus through her action. Her action speaks louder volume. We should be like her by speak to edify one another. Use our words skillfully to build, admonish, correct, and encourage as we cut off the enemy's force by not speaking against one another. Lisa didn't rant or rave, but shared her opinion to help the school. That's Da Gurl!

The sad thing is that Lisa wrote about some women (or men) who chose to remain silent:

"Both of these young women were raped and brutalized by vicious predators. In both cases the childless wife was charged as an accomplice to her husband's crimes. When my son Alec realized women were involved, he was shocked. 'Why didn't the wives rescue the young girls?' he asked, unable to fathom a world where women didn't resuce children. All I could answer was that neither of these women was healthy. They had choices, and they chose to remain silent. For some reason a mother's heart had not awaken in either of them... it's interesting to note that both male abusers twisted scriptures and used unhealthy views of submission to manipulative their wives and the girls."

Can you imagine yourself as an accomplice to somebody's crimes in this world? No! Our hearts had to be awaken for most of us no longer knew how to speak or take advice from one another. Be the voice for the daughters and sons.