Lisa Bevere was a speaker at the recent Colour your World Conference held in Sydney, which attracted a reported 14,000 women!
She is a speaker and bestselling author of Fight Like a Girl, and Kissed the Girls and made them Cry. Her latest book, Nurture, has received the stamp of approval from Australia's Darlene Zscech and Chris Caine, as well as TV evangelist Joyce Meyer.
She is at the forefront of a movement to redefine femininity as a strong force, within biblical guidelines. The instinct to nurture is an example of a God-given female quality that Bevere calls us to express and celebrate.
Bevere believes women are called to nurture, to give tender care and protection, to encourage to develop, grow and thrive. To do this women need to connect with other women, and all of us were born to be nurtured.
"We are heartsick and in need of intimate, safe connections so we can in turn heal and help others," Bevere says.
Her prose is colourful, her self-confidence in handling God's Word is strong, and her break-out quotes on every page scream: "Without the element of nurture, our culture fosters children who consume vast amounts of resources without ever truly giving back."
The book itself is very nurturing for women. The message is: God has a wonderful plan for you, He has given you mighty gifts so get out there and start connecting with people, and take care of them and encourage them.
One thing I like is that there are two kinds of nurture: the practical caring type (which I'm pretty hopeless at), and the encouraging and developing type (which I am much more comfortable with!).
My concerns about the book are its big promises of a "limitless" life, and that a lot of Bible quotes are taken out of context to match the message.
One image that is fascinating is her reflection that in the Bible men are portrayed as warriors for God, whereas the dominant female image (besides wisdom, which doesn't rate a mention) is of the Bride of Christ. Her conclusion: "Men plan wars but women plan weddings"! Bevere goes on to claim that women have intimate access to human hearts to influence them for good or evil.
To some extent this book is a manual of spiritual guidance for women in the disciplines of friendship, mentoring, mothering and training. Unfortunately, there is a focus on external things such as etiquette (?!), beauty and not being a diva, rather than connecting deeply with God through his Word, prayer, meditation, worship and silence.
However, overall there is a positive message for every woman to rise up, recognise our gifts and embrace our God-given role in building God's Kingdom.
Do you have stories of nurturing or being nurtured that you would like to share?
