Valentine's Day is quickly approaching and so there has been a recent influx of articles full of advice for single people (because clearly- we need help.) I'm not usually suckered into reading this type of literature, but the other night I opened a posting titled, "To My Former Single Self" a friend on Facebook posted. I read through several cliché points, such as "Don't just date to date" and "You can't change him or make him a better person." Then I got to #11- 
1. The author portrays feminists as people that "have little to no respect for men and belittle marriage." Feminism by definition is "the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes." EQUALITY. Feminists don't promote supremacy of the female gender, we seek equality. We don't belittle men. We have the same respect for men as we do women.
2. The author also suggests that the feminist mindset is unhealthy, ungodly and defies God. She even goes as far to say that feminists are not "good" nor "Jesus-loving." Let's take a look at the passage in Ephesians that the author references, but the whole passage, not just the 2 verses that make her point.
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[c] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
From this passage, what I'm understanding is that in a godly relationship, men and women are to submit to one another. Women are instructed to submit to their husbands. Husbands are called to love their wives as they love themselves. Sounds like a union of equality to me. I think God is honored in marriages that are a union of equality and mutual sacrifice modeled after Christ's sacrifice for the church.
From this single, Jesus-loving feminist: I encourage you to be a feminist and have male and female feminist friends. I encourage you to always read the whole passage in context. Heed your convictions and voice them. I encourage you to not sit and wait for God to provide you a husband but to relish in the freedom you have before the sacrifices you will have to make in marriage and for your family. Travel. Make work a priority. Take time to figure out what your dreams are and learn more about yourself. Then when you meet the partner God has destined for you, praise Him for the blessing of lifelong companionship and for the experiences you got to have in the meantime.
