Iron Rose Sister Ministries

Written by Karyn Dancy, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Arkansas

I was reading a devotional about Jonah this morning that really hit home for me. It was pointing out how Jonah was running because God is merciful, and Jonah didn’t feel the Ninevites deserved mercy. God is merciful. Even to the Ninevites who did deplorable things.

Do you ever think about why God would spare the Ninevites, but not Sodom and Gomorrah? He knew what they would become.

It struck me because God is merciful to me. Over and over, God has been so patient with me, teaching me step by step what I was able to accept and improve on a little bit at a time. For example, I’ve struggled with depression ever since a terrible car accident that caused some brain damage 20 years ago. I was even suicidal. Ten years ago, though, I had what seemed to be a revelation to me. You see, I always thought that my faith in God was strong, but in one life changing moment ten years ago I had a realization that if I didn’t trust that God had a plan for my life, then my faith was not strong because He promised me that He has good plans for me in Jeremiah 29:11.

I feel like that must be such an obvious thing to anyone who’s thought about it, but for me it took time to come to this realization. God revealed it to me at just the right time, though. It was an ah-ha moment that I needed to be able to fight the depression and trust in the Lord. It gave me a story to share.

Believe me, there are plenty more stories in which I have been on the wrong path in life, much more embarrassing ones, but God was patient with me and helped me come to an understanding of what I needed at just the right time. I could look back on all my years of getting things wrong and think God should’ve abandoned me so many times, but I’m still here, so He must see that I will be a part of His plan one day. Maybe that day is today. I’ll probably always be a work in progress till He calls me home.

I’ve been very negative about myself, beating myself up for my past and also for my physical appearance. It’s time to redefine myself. God sees something in me. I’m going to take hold of that and look for it. I’m going to look for His will in my life. I’m still going to stumble, but I know that God knows I’m going to get there. That’s enough for me.

In case you need the reminder today, His mercy is enough for you too!

Written by Nilaurys Garcia, Iron Rose Sister Ministries volunteer in Chile

Labels are very useful to identify spices and to differentiate between salt and sugar in the kitchen. When moving, they help us know where the fine china is so that we can be careful to not break it. They can also identify who we can ask questions when we are at a tourist site, travel office, sporting event, or in other places.

In the same way that labels have their positive aspects, they also have their negative side when they are used to judge.

Opinions are more impactful when they come from those we most love, our physical family, our spiritual family, friends, coworkers, or classmates. And on those days when we feel down, if someone gives us a strange look, we can feel hurt.

Can you think of a time in which the labels of Christian and single might have a negative connotation?

The way in which you define yourself, at times, can be different from the way in which others see you, simply because we are using different lenses. If you do not live your life in the way that the world wants you to and you have not met the world’s standards, like having a partner, a stable job, kids, an academic title, and being highly recognized across your continent, I invite you to take a deep breath and repeat with me, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Eccl. 3:11, NIV).

If you’re like me, others have made you feel bad for being single. I want to remind you that you are important because you are a daughter of God, not because of your marital status. “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Rom. 8:16). You are not incomplete as some may think. You have not missed your chance. And you will not be the bitter old lady with the cats.

If you have suffered for the cause of Christ, if you have lost your job because you decided you could not be part of a certain situation, or if your own family questions why you study the Bible, why you connect to that Zoom meeting, or why you gather with that group on Sundays, I encourage you to keep the faith. I know it hurts, but the reward far outweighs any suffering and we have the great Comforter. “For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ” (2 Cor. 1:5).

You are I my prayers. You are not alone. You are worthy and I invite you to repeat, “I am a daughter of the Almighty and in Him I find comfort.”

Written by Michelle J. Goff, founder and director of Iron Rose Sister Ministries

When asked to consult regarding the need for a singles ministry in a local congregation, there are two questions I ask before moving forward in the conversation.

1) How do you define singles?
2) Have you spoken with the singles there about this perceived need and what do they say?

In One Single Reason: Conversations with Single Women, I address the myriad of answers that could be provided for the first question.

In its simplest form for church contexts, a single person is someone who is not currently married. However, was this individual married at some point previously? Does she have children? Is she widowed? Does the young professional college graduate have the same “single” status as the divorced woman without kids? And what of those who choose to be single versus those who long to find a spouse? Contented singles or frustrated ones?
Singles. In a society that celebrates individuality, we cannot possibly highlight all of the variations and nuances to each person’s specific story. (One Single Reason, pg. 10)

Interestingly, when I conducted surveys and interviews across the Americas, I had a more difficult time recruiting Latina sisters to participate in the survey because they were using a different definition of “single” than I was using. For them, a single woman is someone who is single and available. If the woman has a boyfriend, a partner, or a husband, at any level of commitment in the relationship, even separated or divorced, she is no longer “single.”

How do you define “single”?

Throughout the book, One Single Reason, I use the singular term “single” to refer to single women (never married) and those who are single again (separated, divorced, or widowed). However, one of the points that is highlighted is that every single one of us, not just the singles, struggle with many of the same things!

When referring to a specific woman’s story, sometimes the details of her marital status were included in the narrative, and at other times, it was preferable to leave out those details in order to illustrate the multiple ways in which others can identify with her plight or her victory.

Outside of the distinction between the ways in which North Americans and Latinas might define the term “single,” language and country of origin were not the most significant contributing factors, statistically speaking, for the vast majority of the responses to the surveys and the interviews. This affirms a greater commonality among all women than the dividing border lines Satan would like to draw between us.

While we may not understand the specific context of someone else’s story, we can listen, learn, and love—our one single reason—in a way that affirms our shared identity in Christ. And if we are listening and learning about the story of someone who is not yet in Christ, our love for her and for Christ compels us to invite her into a shared identity as His beloved daughter!

In the family or the body of Christ, we see a description of many members with different functions (1 Cor. 12; Eph. 4:11-16; others).

May we celebrate each other’s value in the body, especially that of the single women we know. For various reasons, she often feels less a part of the body, less connected, or less valued. And no matter who you are reading this post, single, married, single-again, red or yellow, brown, black or white… please KNOW with certainty how much God loves you and how much He longs for you to reflect His love to others through the love you have for yourself (Matt. 22:39).

If you are interested in continuing this conversation, please check out our latest resource, One Single Reason: Conversations with Single Women. And if you know someone who is not yet familiar with this conversation, but who you know should be invited to the table, especially for how to better listen, learn, and love in a church context, check out One Single Reason: Congregational Strategies from Conversations with Single Women.

As we live out love, let’s see each other as God sees us and allow Him to shape and refine our identities in Him.

P.S. The Spanish book is now available on Amazon and for pre-order on our website!

Written by Corina Diaz, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Argentina

Before going into these lines, I would like to invite you to remember what was your vocation during your childhood?

Now let me tell you my own story: When I was a child, most of the time I used to play being a doctor and healing people, so it was very common to receive gifts that were related to this type of games, and as I was growing up, my family made the fact that I would be a great doctor. At that time, what was a child's play became a reality. At the end of my nursing studies, I studied medicine, but in spite of me not finishing the medicine career I aimed my life at the health sciences. I am currently a yoga instructor and I'm focusing in offering yoga as a way to prevent health diseases, and I’m constantly using my knowledge gained from the past as a nurse as a tool in restorative Yoga. Nowadays, I consider that this was part of the vocation to which God was calling me, and I clearly see how that vocation became part of who I am: My identity.

After reflecting on my own vocation, it reminded me of some words of Paul to the Ephesians in chapter 4:1b-6 “... I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences. You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness (MSG)

Vocation is defined as the inclination that a person feels inside to dedicate himself to a certain task. Others also define it as a spiritual awakening that prompts you to lead a way of life. However, Paul has a broad perspective on this word and an important meaning on our identity, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” (NIV).

Almost 15 years ago, I accepted this vocation by going to the waters of baptism and following Christ, of course it has not been the easiest part of my life, but I am totally convinced that my life is constantly being renewed in this call of following Jesus Christ, and having the greatest blessing of serving in multiple ways. This is the seal that Christ gave me, that I can show His love to others although things around me are changing and perhaps things are not going well. I am aware of this call of Christ: -Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love-. And also, I think this is the new identity that we receive in Ephesians 4: 23-24, “To be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness".