Tara Dew talks about women heroes of the faith in this surprising podcast with Marilyn.
Marilyn Stewart: All right. Hi, I'm Marilyn Stewart.
Gary Myers: And I'm Gary Myers.
Marilyn Stewart: And we are the host for the Answering the Call podcast, the podcast about people who are answering God's call.
Gary Myers: In this episode, Marilyn talks with Tara Dew about Women Heroes of the Faith.
Marilyn Stewart: Often, when we talk about heroes, we think of people with superpowers who are changing the world. But in this surprising episode, we talk about heroes that are changing the world, but who have anything but superpowers.
Gary Myers: Here's Tara.
Marilyn Stewart: So Tara, we are going to talk about Women Heroes of the Faith, and this could be one of the most surprising podcasts we've ever done. Maybe the most surprising podcast in all of podcast history, because there are plenty of women heroes of the faith-
Tara Dew: Yes.
Marilyn Stewart: ... but sometimes it might be kind of surprising.
Tara Dew: That's right, that's right.
Marilyn Stewart: Yeah. I want to go back and mention a statement. We mentioned this article before by Heidi Johnston, and this was on Gospel Coalition back in October, October 25th. And the article is Four Things I Want My Daughters to Know. Number two is I want my daughters to know the way they choose to live their life matters. And so I can think of a lot of women in my life; I know you can, too, that have been very influential. So who are your heroes?
Tara Dew: Oh my goodness, Marilyn, there's so many. And as I was preparing to think about this podcast and what we were going to talk about and just inspiring our daughters to know why their life matters. I think it's just so important for us to think about women who are our heroes, who have gone before us. And a quote that I've just ... It's stuck with me ever since I read it, it was at a Jen Wilkin Bible Study, but she had gotten it from the study notes of a Study Bible. But it was that Christian perseverance is a community endeavor.
Marilyn Stewart: Ooh.
Tara Dew: And it has stuck with me. And as I was thinking about this podcast, I thought about that quote and how so many of us probably can look into our pasts and think about the people in our communities that were surrounding us, that have spurred us on to keep going.
Marilyn Stewart: Oh, I agree. I love that.
Tara Dew: And so, as I was thinking back into my own past and thinking about the people that were in my communities surrounding me, these women who are heroes to me, are not necessarily people that anybody else will know their name. And I'm sure probably you think about that too, you know?
Marilyn Stewart: I do.
Tara Dew: Yeah, we know so many of the celebrity Christian culture, but when we really think about our own lives and we think about who mattered in our life and who helped us persevere to become the women that we are, it's not necessarily those well-known celebrities. It's the sweet ladies in our lives who are serving right where God had them. And so Marilyn, to answer your question, who are my heroes, it would start with my mom and my grandma, right?
Marilyn Stewart: Yes, yes.
Tara Dew: I had the blessing of growing up in a Christian home. My mom had met the Lord in high school, and so I have been in church as long as I can remember. I joke that I have loved Jesus for as long as I can remember because my mom and dad were believers, and so they had us in church and I can remember my mom playing Christian music. I grew up with Steven Curtis Chapman and Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith just playing through the house, and those are the ones I danced to. I did dance performances, too, every night, right, as dad's videotaping me behind that huge camcorder. But it was my mom who established and cultivated this atmosphere in our home, that of just a loving God. And I can remember watching her, sitting at the kitchen table, doing her Bible study or singing in church or getting involved in church, volunteering at our church. And so my first hero of the faith would have been my mother and I became a believer the same night that my grandmother did.
Marilyn Stewart: I remember that story, yes.
Tara Dew: And so my grandmother and I have a faith that is very intertwined. But as an older woman who had been married a lot longer, who had raised children, I just learned so much from my grandmother and my mother's example of how to walk with the Lord and how to love your husband and your children well. But you know, Marilyn, as I thought about other heroes of the faith, you know, it would be Miss Pearl, who, every Sunday you could find her rocking babies in the nursery, or Miss Glenda and Miss Cindy who taught me in Girls in Action and Acteens, what it was like to be a missionary, right where God had you, and who were telling me these stories of Christian missionaries around the world.
Marilyn Stewart: Oh, yes, right, right.
Tara Dew: You know, like the Amy Carmichaels and the Lottie Moons, those famous names that you've heard of, but it Miss Glenda and Miss Cindy on Wednesday nights, teaching me at Girls in Action and Acteens. It was the Miss Deborahs and Miss Lauries, who were the Sunday school teachers, who taught me how to teach the Bible for the first time.
Marilyn Stewart: Oh, that's interesting.
Tara Dew: I can remember watching them teach the Bible in Sunday school or the people who would open their homes for youth group and feed us each week. So as I think back about the heroes in my life, it's not necessarily those well-known names, the celebrity Christians, it's the women who were just faithful-
Marilyn Stewart: Who persevered.
Tara Dew: ... and who persevered right where God had them. And I'm sure you probably had some of those in your life, too.
Marilyn Stewart: Oh, exactly. And especially my mother and my grandmother, but I also want to mention two other ladies, because the people you mentioned remind me of them. One, Mrs. Betty Flint.
Tara Dew: Yes.
Marilyn Stewart: And Mrs. Joan White. And that's what we called back in that day was always Mrs. White, Mrs. Flint.
Tara Dew: That's right.
Marilyn Stewart: But they were there every time we had anything and this was in Ohio, a church plant that my dad started, and so every member counted.
Tara Dew: Wow.
Marilyn Stewart: But I wonder if this is true for you. It was not that they were just elegant in everything that they said and did about the Lord, it's that they lived it out and they lived it out daily. We could count on them being there.
Tara Dew: That's right. And often doing some of the unseen work in the church, right?
Marilyn Stewart: Exactly.
Tara Dew: I mean, when I think back to these just faithful ladies, they were the ones that were keeping the children so the parents could worship, or they were the ones that were in the background, greeting people as they were coming to church or making the women's bathroom really nice by adding those touches, right? Or maybe serving in the kitchen, getting those Wednesday night suppers ready, or the church potlucks. These were the ladies that were just there all the time.
Marilyn Stewart: All the time, mm-hmm (affirmative)
Tara Dew: And they were prayer warriors.
Marilyn Stewart: Yes.
Tara Dew: I can remember, even as a young child, being taken aback by these women and their fervency in prayer for the church. So they were there and they were active and they were serving, but it was from this deep found faith that just bubbled over in what they did.
Marilyn Stewart: Well, you know, that's what I think of with Mrs. White. She was always faithful, but her husband for many years was not a believer, but she came and she served and she did. She was a school teacher, so she was just a fabulous person and could correct you and, at the same time, love you.
Tara Dew: That's right, that's right.
Marilyn Stewart: And her husband later became a Christian and very faithful to the church. But I just remember watching her and knowing that she came alone to church, but that it was important she was there every single time. That's perseverance.
Tara Dew: Perseverance, that's right. That's right. And it reminds me so much, Marilyn, of just what education people have called the imitation principle.
Marilyn Stewart: Yes.
Tara Dew: Which, we are by nature imitators, we are created as imitators. If you think about babies, they imitate right from the very beginning.
Marilyn Stewart: Right, right.
Tara Dew: The goo-goo ga-ga, you know, back and forth, ma-ma-ma, da-da-da, right? Or learning to walk, we learn by imitation. And there's a verse in Philippians in chapter three that just talks about join in imitating me, as I imitate Christ and pay careful attention to those who have gone before us as the example that they've set. And as I thought about these women, Marilyn, both in your life and my life, it's just the imitation principle working itself out, isn't it?
Marilyn Stewart: Yes it is. It is definitely.
Tara Dew: We saw these women that others might not know their names, just being faithful, right where they were, mothers, grandmothers, friends, sisters, coworkers, teachers, and we have learned about the faith by imitating them.
Marilyn Stewart: You know, there was a phrase they used when I was a little girl and they would say the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Now, I'm not sure what they meant at the time, but I really understood that as, you know, women have a great deal of influence.
Tara Dew: Yes.
Marilyn Stewart: And oh, Tara, yes at church, the things that these women would do in serving quietly, whether it was rocking a baby, doing the church bulletin, whatever it was, really impressed me and the fact that they loved us, no matter what. But I do remember with Mrs. Flint, that I knew that they and their money in ways at critical times in this church plant to help it grow. And at the time, again, I didn't really know much about that, but as an adult later, I thought that must have been quite a sacrifice for that family.
Tara Dew: Wow.
Marilyn Stewart: A working family, and so these are the things that stay with us and mold us.
Tara Dew: That's right. And just using however God has blessed you, be it with your time, or your talents or your resources, right? Using whatever God has given you to further his kingdom. And I think you see women faithfully throughout history doing that. I mean, Lydia, with the church of Colosse, right? She was the one who was hosting it in her homes, and her means supported Paul in so much of what he was doing. And here I hear these sweet women who supported this church plant, right, of their funds. And so you never can underestimate the power of just using what God's given you, be it your time to serve in a church, be it your treasures and how you can support and give, but living a life that truly matters.
Marilyn Stewart: And I think this is just so important for women to hear, because we're in kind of a day and age where I think we feel like you are successful if you've got a career. Or, Tara, we think oh, if I write a book or if I'm this or that or whatever, that that's what success is. And I really believe that these women have convinced me that it is just being faithful in the small things that are changing the world for Christ.
Tara Dew: That's exactly right. And, Marilyn, I think anybody who's listening to this podcast can think back into their life and-
Marilyn Stewart: I think so, too.
Tara Dew: ... the one person who extended an invitation to come to church or the one person who said an encouraging word of something that they saw in them, or one person who discipled them. You know, I often tell women if you have a kitchen table, then you have all that you need, right, to be used by God.
Marilyn Stewart: Right.
Tara Dew: Invite another woman to come sit at your table. Tell her what God has done for you in your life, right? Read the Bible together. But it's the small things and if we all think back, I think it's those insignificant in the eyes of the world, people who have made a significant difference in our lives. And it's a reminder to us, Marilyn, that God's economy is not what this world's economy is.
Marilyn Stewart: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
Tara Dew: And he uses the nobodies, so to speak. He uses the ones that are the unknown.
Marilyn Stewart: Now we have talked before about doing a podcast just in hospitality.
Tara Dew: Yes.
Marilyn Stewart: And I've kind of avoided that because I am an introvert, with capital I, and so it's hard for me to do that, but that's exactly what my mother did. Every meal, no matter what it was, it could be liver and onions and people would be over for supper. And so it is an important thing. We'll come back to that on a different podcast as the importance of hospitality.
Tara Dew: Yes, yes we will.
Marilyn Stewart: But I want to talk more about maybe the qualities of women that have meant so much to you. We have talked about being obedient and persevering. What other qualities do you see in women that may not be making a big name for themselves, but they are true heroes of the faith?
Tara Dew: Marilyn, I think it starts with a love for the Lord, and a love for his word. I really do. I mean, there's a lot of talk about the biblical womanhood and all this stuff, but I really think it's simple. If you're a woman who loves the Lord and loves his word, that's going to spill out into everything that we do.
Marilyn Stewart: Exactly.
Tara Dew: And so, for me, as I think back about these women heroes, they loved Jesus.
Marilyn Stewart: Yes, yes.
Tara Dew: And they loved his word and his word would be on their lips as they talked or as they served or it was just part of who they were. And so, for me, that's the ultimate foundation, when I think about these women heroes whose lives mattered.
Marilyn Stewart: I agree.
Tara Dew: It was just this ultimate love for Jesus. He so enraptured their hearts and their minds, and they had met him and were never the same. And it was this contagious love for him and his word that then just spilled out and it made you want it more.
Marilyn Stewart: Absolutely. And you know, and I think that about my grandmother, about other women that I've known that there were times in their lives that were really hard. And I think times that they didn't have the spiritual leader in a husband that every woman would like, but they just simply were in love with Jesus and they just let Jesus direct their lives into people that they needed to be a part of.
Tara Dew: That's right.
Marilyn Stewart: And it's amazing as I look back on them.
Tara Dew: Yes, yes.
Marilyn Stewart: So I do think of love. I think of even a quiet spirit, and that's not the same thing as being quiet.
Tara Dew: That's right.
Marilyn Stewart: But I think a spirit where they are willing to just let Jesus direct their lives and change them.
Tara Dew: Yeah, and they were humble.
Marilyn Stewart: Yes.
Tara Dew: They were women who weren't trying to make a platform or a name for themselves, they weren't trying to become this celebrity. They were just faithful where God had them serving.
Marilyn Stewart: Yes.
Tara Dew: And they weren't above any tasks. They weren't too good for things like that.
Marilyn Stewart: Right.
Tara Dew: They just were faithful. And even the ones that were upfront teaching and leading in other ways were then opening their homes to have the youth group over, you know, or bringing chocolate chip cookies as we were doing a serve day, you know what I mean? So it was just using whatever they had and leveraging whatever they had, not for a name for themselves, but rather making much of Christ.
Marilyn Stewart: And so that kind of brings me to some women that may have names that are recognizable.
Tara Dew: Yes, yes.
Marilyn Stewart: And the story of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot amazes me.
Tara Dew: Yes, yes.
Marilyn Stewart: And I first ... I'm ashamed to say, I first read their story when I was at seminary myself years ago, that long before I read the story. And so Tara, I've been going back through Shadow of the Almighty.
Tara Dew: Yes.
Marilyn Stewart: And what strikes me ... And, remember, I read this as a single seminary student.
Tara Dew: Wow.
Marilyn Stewart: And watching their romance and how they devoted it to God, waited on God. And even as Jim Elliott talks about Elisabeth at the beginning, she's not a raving beauty, she's not the best conversationalist, necessarily. He was drawn to her love of Jesus and his spirit within her.
Tara Dew: Yes, yes. And I just finished reading, Becoming Elisabeth Elliot, and they had like a five-year courtship-
Marilyn Stewart: They did.
Tara Dew: ... where they were just continually offering their relationship to the Lord. But it was so clear that they both had just this fiery passion and zeal to serve the Lord and reached the lost. And then when they finally got married-
Marilyn Stewart: Finally got married, yes.
Tara Dew: ... yes, it was actually not that long before Jim was killed.
Marilyn Stewart: Right, I think just a couple years.
Tara Dew: It was. It was not that long, but then her continued desire to reach those lost people there in Ecuador. And it's an amazing story.
Marilyn Stewart: It is amazing.
Tara Dew: But, I love it. And I think for our daughters, it is important for them, Marilyn, to know these unsung heroes-
Marilyn Stewart: Yes.
Tara Dew: ... as well as the heroes. I mean, we are people who love superheroes and we love celebrities. And so as a mom, for us to remind our daughters, there are Christian women who have gone before you.
Marilyn Stewart: Exactly.
Tara Dew: Learn from them. I mean, you go all the way back to Perpetua and Felicity, you can go back to the early medieval church. Then you got, of course, the missionaries like the Amy Carmichaels and the Corrie Ten Booms and the Elisabeth Elliots and the Lottie Moons and the Gladys ... Is it Aylward? Anyway, they're amazing. There are so many amazing women, I think, for our children to learn these Christian biographies of women whose lives mattered, and then that can then spur them on-
Marilyn Stewart: Absolutely.
Tara Dew: ... to maybe become ... What could God do with you?
Marilyn Stewart: Exactly.
Tara Dew: Your life is going to matter.
Marilyn Stewart: So we're doing both. We're encouraging our daughters to think outside the box and say, give your life to Jesus. You have no idea what he's capable of doing with you.
Tara Dew: That's right.
Marilyn Stewart: Just the way you are. And at the same time saying whatever Jesus does with your life is going to be fabulous.
Tara Dew: That's right.
Marilyn Stewart: And you don't know how many people you're going to influence.
Tara Dew: That's exactly right.
Marilyn Stewart: And I do think with every woman you just named, Elisabeth Elliot, they might not have been the woman or the girl that someone looked at and said, "That girl's going to go far," probably not. They just simply were obedient, and that's something all of us can do.
Tara Dew: That's exactly right.
Marilyn Stewart: In fact, Henrietta Mears is one like that.
Tara Dew: Yes.
Marilyn Stewart: And this is a name that I'm not just real familiar with, but she was called the Mother of Modern Evangelicalism back in the thirties and the forties, and she simply was the director of Christian education at her church in Hollywood, California. But the people that she influenced, Bill bright of Campus Life, Jim Rayburn of Young Life, and then a name everybody knows, Billy Graham.
Tara Dew: Wow.
Marilyn Stewart: And so wrote, and she was offered a job at Fuller Seminary, but she said she was staying right where she was and just simply loved children and college-aged students and impacted the world.
Tara Dew: That's right. So it's just such a reminder, Marilyn, wherever God has us, in whatever sphere, may we be faithful and make Christian community be what drives our perseverance in the faith.
Marilyn Stewart: I agree. And that may be a great place to end for now, but we're going to do that podcast on hospitality.
Tara Dew: And I think we've got two more also coming up, as follows up from this article, so it'll be good.
Marilyn Stewart: We do, and I'm looking forward to this. These are all about things that we can encourage our daughters and to make sure that they know. Thank you, Tara. I appreciate it.
Tara Dew: You're welcome. Thanks for having me.
Gary Myers: Hey, it's Gary and Joe here again. Would you do us a favor? If you like this podcast, go to iTunes and leave us a review. This would mean the world to us. Thanks.