Creativity and choices

I made a comment today about a memory I had from high school. My guidance counselor wouldn't let me take an art class because I had heretofore not shown an interest or ability in art and as there were only so many spots, I wasn't allowed in.

I think I'm creative. I love yarn, fiber, fabric and designing things that use these mediums. So what might I have become if I had tried an art class?  Maybe I would have parlayed that into something else? Perhaps I'd have been inspired to a technical job like graphic art.  Who knows?  I ended up doing things I enjoy in my free time but what if my path had been different?

As adults I think it's very easy to try and mold people into what we want them to be for us. It's especially easy to do this to children because "they are too young to know what they want." But is it the right thing to do?

I've recently decided to leave my church. I like the pastor but the denomination believes that women cannot be pastors. So if I hear God say I need to serve him, according to these men, I can be a teacher. Not a deacon but a Sunday school teacher. The young girls in the church will never believe they can lead anyone to Christ except as a "helper".  I'm not a raging feminist. I also am not a non-traditional type of believer. But to discount the impact that a female can have in furthering ministry simply because she can house life within her body is ludicrous. And demeaning.  I refuse to believe God would call an ineffectual man to ministry but not see the skills of a girl or the benefits a woman could offer at the same time.

Maybe I would have hated art class. It might have been the worst memory of my high school years. But. It might have been the best.