In this inspiring episode, Rachael Jenneman shares her profound journey of faith and the importance of recognizing and embracing unique callings. Dive deep into her insights on women’s empowerment as she discusses her impactful book, The Real War on Women. Rachael addresses the misconceptions of oppression and the spiritual warfare women face today, emphasizing the strength found in understanding one’s femininity. Discover the significance of embracing unique roles in society and the challenges Rachael faced while writing her book. Tune in to hear about the legacy she hopes to leave behind and be inspired to embrace your own unique path.

my goodness, thank you so much for having me. Thank you for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.

It's always a joy to meet new people and learn about what they're doing and how God's using them to make a difference in the world. So it's all about the impact of God using us to do great things to impact his people. So I'm looking forward to talking to you.

love it. Yeah, I'm looking forward to talking to you too. Thank you.

But we're going to start with my favorite question now. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Okay.

my goodness, Reverend, there's so many. You can't narrow it down to just one. However, I will say this, and it was probably a few months ago that somebody said this, and it really changed my perspective on a lot of things. We are living in a culture right now where we're constantly in the Jesus movement of saying, hey, don't compare yourself, don't compare yourself. And I get that, and we need to be reiterating that, but we're not getting the message.

And so with social media and the news and everybody else around us, we're still constantly comparing ourselves and what we're doing for Jesus, what we're not doing for Jesus. And probably about a few months back, someone said this, and it was, we're not running the same race. So don't compare your race to mine because it's not the same. And I don't know why it sounds like a no brainer, but it just hit me in Second Chronicles when Paul talks about how we are running a race for the

Everybody's after the same prize. That's heaven. That's Jesus. But my race doesn't look like yours. So why am I trying to run your race when I've got my own that I have to race? And I think for me in this season of life, that has been one of the best pieces of advice because it's taken a lot of weight off of my shoulders and I can really focus on what has God asked me to do at this time.

And that fits so well what you're writing about, helping women find their unique calling, because it is your calling. And I always told my congregation, God called you for a reason and gave you a task that only you can do, and no one can do it for you. So you have to embrace that because it's your calling and not anyone else's.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

that journey for you is gonna look very different than, like you said, my journey looks. And you can look at someone's journey and go, wow, they got it so easy. It's like, yeah, but you're not really walking in their daily shoes. It may look easy from the outside, but until you put those shoes on and walk a few miles in it, you don't realize just how different that journey looks. It may make it look easy, but it's not.

Mm-hmm.

Yes. Mm-hmm.

I'm curious too, one of my other favorite questions is kind of give us a little bit about your backstory. I'm kind of curious about your journey.

So I like to tell people I grew up a PK, a police officer's kid. I did not grow up in the church, my husband nor myself. I am from a first responder military family. You put your bootstraps on, you work hard, but I really was not exposed to anything Jesus. And I grew up believing in God, because I live in America and that's just what you do, you believe in God. When I was 16, I was working at a restaurant.

And one of the regulars that would come in asked one of the waitresses if she would like to go to church. Well, she didn't want to go by herself. So she asked me, would you like to go as well? I'm 16 years old. It's the summer before my junior year of high school. thinking, really? Sunday? I mean, that's for sleeping. And then she said something that completely changed my perspective on everything. She said, you know, Rachel, cute boys go to church. And I said, well, I'm in.

Okay, I can't get a boyfriend at school, then obviously church is where I need to be. And I went and worship, it was one of those services where the Holy Spirit took over and worship went on for an hour and a half. I had never seen anything like it before. People had their hands raised. My hands probably about after 45 minutes started to itch because we had been clapping for so long. I didn't even stay for the service. This one woman and I, left. And...

But at that service, I saw two sisters. One I had several classes with and the other one I had lunch with. So the next day, back when you had landlines, I dug out my yearbook and I'm looking, because I know one of them signed my yearbook with their phone number in it. So I find the number, I call them up Monday morning, and I just got a hold of one of the sisters and I said, what the heck was that? What was that that I just witnessed at church?

last night, like I knew you all were Christian, but I didn't know you were that type of Christian. So then she begins, I mean, at that point, I think I was every Christian's dream because I am asking questions and I am digging. There is no like, I need to witness to this person. Like I am willing to listen. So she starts sharing, I don't even know what she told me. All I know is I'm freaking her out because I know nothing about Jesus. And she's freaking me out because she knows

And she's freaking me out because she knows all this stuff about Jesus. I'm thinking, how do you know this? There was no Jesus 101 in school. How do you know all this stuff? So she invites me, no, Wednesday night youth group. They had a guest speaker. They're doing the worship again. And the other sister pulled me aside later. And she said, what do you think about all this? And I said, you know, for the first time, I have no idea where I'm going.

all this stuff about Jesus. I'm thinking, how do you know this? There was no Jesus 101 in school. How do you know all this stuff? So she invites me, no, Wednesday night, youth group. They had a guest speaker, they're doing the worship again. And the other sister pulled me aside later and she said, what do you think about all this? And I said, you know, for the first time I have no idea where I'm going. I just assumed I'm going to heaven, but now I don't.

And the next day I went and I bought myself a Bible, had no clue what I was reading, didn't know what was in it, but I'm flipping through it because now I'm super curious. Well, they didn't invite me back on Sunday, but I just showed up. And all I could think was, man, I hope they are not mad at me because they didn't ask me back and I just show up. Right? So I show up and they have, you've heard of Teen Challenge? Okay, so Teen Challenge is their,

I hope they are not mad at me because they didn't ask me back and I just show up.

giving this huge presentation, all these people are sharing about how God set them free from alcohol and drugs. And at the end of the service, the guest preacher says, who would like to accept Christ in their heart? Well, I'm thinking this is a hypothetical question. So I raise my hand and I look around, nobody else is raising their hand. So I quickly put it down, but it was too late. The pastor saw, calls me up front. I said some,

So I raise my hand.

prayer, I have no idea what I said, but I got saved by accident. and obviously I just it's never an accident. But from then on, I knew I was different. And when I was 19, I felt a call to ministry and at 21, I felt a call to preaching ministry. So that's kind of a little bit of my Jesus story a little bit different than most.

I can't hear you. There we go.

it's amazing how God connects us with the right people at the right time because he has something for us to do. And I love that story of you kind of accidentally fell into it. But like you said, it's not accident because God was using that time and those people to impact your life. I am curious because what you just shared is

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

The church has a hard time, I think, welcoming people into their midst. We love to have people come, but we're not exactly sure what to do with it when they show up. You know, because we don't, we're like, come to church, come to church, and then they come and it's like, great, you're here. What do we do with you now? We weren't really expecting you to show up. And we don't really, how do we disciple you now? So we kind of...

That's true.

Now what?

Mmm.

It reminds me, I think of we want people to come, we want them to be curious, but a lot of people, what made your story interesting to me was a lot of times they don't have that sense of curiosity, that sense of I'm gonna invite myself back to church. They're waiting for someone to say, hey, come sit with me, then come walk with me. Let me help guide you through this process. So what about your journey had you stay when it wasn't like you were invited to be part of that?

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Ahem.

I think at that point, I knew the truth now. I couldn't walk away from that. And here's the thing that I've noticed. So this was in 1999. So I've been a Christian, 4th of July, 1999. Now I've been a Christian for 25 years. And something that I have noticed about our culture is we say that we love God, but quite frankly, we don't fear God. I feared God.

almost in an unhealthy way. And I think it's taken me a long time to get to that place where I have more of a healthy fear of God instead of an unhealthy fear. And when I came to Christ, I knew there was no looking back because now I fear the Lord. I know what is true and I can't walk away from that. And even to this day, and I'm not saying I'm better than anybody else. I think everybody has a risk of falling away from the Lord, but I'm always surprised at those that do because in my mind, I fear hell.

I fear that, and I fear God. That's what has really kept me going back then and even all these years later.

Yeah, that's pretty impressive. So you wrote a book, The Real War on Women. So tell me what led you to write that book.

I did.

Okay.

That book is kind of loaded with a lot of possibilities. But what led you to write or inspired you to write that book?

Mm-hmm.

And when they would get interviewed, all of their answers of what this war was or how they were oppressed, nothing was unified, it was different. And I couldn't figure out how these women were oppressed because they had their iPhones in their pockets, they were carrying their Starbucks coffee, they had these really fancy shoes. Probably quite a few of them had master's degrees. And I'm sitting here going, how are you oppressed? And I think that's easy for me to ask because I've been all over the world.

So I've seen what women have. I've been to Africa where a lot of these girls, once they start their menstrual cycles, they have to stop their educational career because now, because it's such a taboo subject, you can't go to school and you are living in poverty and you don't have the items you need to keep you in school. I've been to countries where I have fed nine-year-old prostitute girls the only meal that they wouldn't have to work for that week. I remember watching two

two girls sharing a pair of high heel shoes that were little girl prostitutes because they didn't have the money to each have their own pair of high heel shoes. I've been to countries where I couldn't look men in the eye because then it would be assumed that I was a prostitute. And to me, that's real oppression. And so I began to get really angry at these women and I just wanted to yell, my gosh, just go to

go to Asia, you will see the real oppression that is upon these women because you don't have it. And then I had to step back and realize, okay, wait a minute. Some of these women, they're just regurgitating what they've heard, but then there's others that really are wounded. And they're trying to find healing in a way that they're not going to find healing. The only way you can find healing is Jesus. And they're wounded because maybe an uncle, a father, a friend, a brother took advantage of them.

of them that was supposed to be a protector and instead became a predator. And that's when I began to soften a little bit and actually have some empathy. And around that same time, my son was really big into World War II airplanes. And so we were doing a lot of research on World War II. And I came across the book on a lot of women who served during that time. And I just began falling in love with these women because they all had one goal, and that was defeat the enemy.

If we can defeat Hitler, the sooner our brothers come home, our dads, our husbands, our uncles, our sons, and they were all different, but yet they all worked together to serve in this war in their own unique way, well then, come Mother's Day, our pastor's wife who normally would preach was somewhere else, so I was asked to speak and I...

gave this message on the difference between feminism and femininity and what God has asked us to do. And I really, compared it to the women of World War II because again, they all had one goal, defeat the enemy. And it wasn't, I'm gonna pull the gender card and you have to let me do this because I'm oppressed. It was, no, there's a war on, so let's get in and let's do it. And I gave this message and I just, was shocked at.

the response I received. Just women coming to me in tears. Men, I had men coming to me in tears just saying thank you. Thank you for not putting my wife in a box. Thank you for not putting these women. Thank you for not putting me in a box. And it was almost as if for the first time they felt a little bit of freedom. And I knew that I just had to keep writing. That this was just not a one and done deal. And then I expanded the sermon and out.

became this book. that's the story. That's the long and short version of the story.

That's a great story. So tell me, you talked about you saw these women who were saying that they were oppressed and

Mm-hmm.

So how did you address that issue? Because I still think that issue, that wording is still out there. I think, again, it keeps changing and evolving. Younger women I hear today, they're oppressed because of reproductive rights they think they're being taken from them or other reasons. that sense is still there. And I still think there's a spiritual war going on with women. And I think there's a spiritual war going on with the whole transgender thing in women as well.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Right. Mm-hmm.

Yes, yes.

So that warfare is still happening and it's crazy to me that some women embrace the very things that are oppressing them. Right, so how do you tackle that spiritual warfare when the thing you're asking for is the very thing that's oppressing you?

Yes, yes, because sin steals the very thing it promises.

Hmm

Well, when it comes to say reproductive rights, thing, there is no convincing someone unless Jesus has really softened their heart enough. think it was, how does, I'm trying to think of the phrase, the way Jesus approaches people, he gave grace to the humble and he brought the law to the proud. So if a person is super proud and this is my rights and this is how we're gonna, you have to in a sense bring the law.

When a person is humbled and is genuinely curious and asking questions and want to have a conversation, that's when you can really have grace. And I don't think women, especially Christian women, are really going to understand that abortion steals from them, that the trans-gender movement steals from them. They're not going to understand that until they recognize their uniqueness as female, until they recognize

that their femininity is not a problem, but it is an answer. Just like masculinity. Masculinity is not a problem. It's not toxic masculinity. Masculinity is a strength, and it's something that's powerful that is needed, just as femininity. And unless a woman embraces that, I don't know if she's fully going to understand the productive rights, the transgender thing, and how her gender is important. One thing I do talk about in the book,

is the difference between Adam and Eve. And that they were both created in the image of God. And I think when we, in Genesis chapter two, when we see that word helper, at least for me, because I grew up in Michigan in a very feminist culture, you don't rely on a man, you take care of yourself, you're super independent. So that really wrecked me as a Christian wife. Like how in the world do I do this? But when you read that word helper, it makes you feel less than.

that Adam's created in the image of God and somehow I'm just there to help that along, that somehow I'm a consumer. And consumers, they take up space. And I'm sure you know this already, I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but that original word, helper, is the word azer. And it is used 22 times in the Old Testament and only twice is it used to describe the first woman.

All the other times throughout the Old Testament, it is used to describe a calling God for help. you look at Psalms 121, David is saying, I look up to the mountains, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord. That's also known as, some theologians call that the soldier's Psalm, because it is the morning of battle and David is crying out to God, please help us, please save our lives.

And I'm going, why would God use the word azer to describe himself, but also use to describe woman? And woman's not God, but what woman was created for was to be that lifesaver, to be that influence. And unfortunately, woman didn't hold up to that because her and Adam both sinned. She had influence.

over him influenced Adam to sin when she could have used her life-saving influence to say, we're not going to do that. And you can argue all day long, Adam's the leader, and I get all that. But again, we are better together. We are both made in the image of God. So when I see, I'm created not just as a helpmate, but also I have power as a lifesaver. I have more responsibility than what I think I do as female. And when I have

spoken on that scripture before, I've gotten a lot of backlash of, well, are you saying it's bad to be a husband's helpmate? No, I'm not putting that down at all. What I'm saying is you have more of a responsibility. And that as that helper or that lifesaver, you're not a consumer just helping Adam along, but you're an investor. You're meant to invest into the kingdom. And I think if we can get that, if we can understand that, we can understand our uniqueness more.

that we can be comfortable in the skin of female, that there is a portion of God's image in Adam that we don't see in woman, and there's a portion of God's image in woman that we don't see in Adam. We hold that life-saving portion of God's image.

That's great. It's actually funny. When I was my last year of seminary, I wrote a book about Paul. I wrote about Paul because I was talking about marriage marriage counseling.

where there's this thing about a wife submit to your husband. And just like in the Old Testament, that word does not mean subordinate or inferior. It means helper. But I was also pointing out that Paul wasn't downgrading women in that text. He was actually elevating women because in that culture, as you know, those women were second class citizens. They were almost seen as property. So when Paul says,

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

treat her as you treat her, love her as you love yourself, he was elevating up to the same status that a man had, as opposed to saying, you need to know your place. And so I think we do miss out on the roles. And actually, I was listening to somebody talk about that verse in Genesis where the way he described it is that, you know, my wife and I have very different strengths and there are qualities in her that I admire and aspire to have more of those qualities in myself than she does. I mean, than I have in myself. Like she's great about compassion, empathy.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

And she taught me how to do that. And so what I see Genesis saying is that you are there to supplement each other and to make each other stronger. So the parts that I'm weak at, those are the parts you may be strongest at. And we play off of those strengths so we become a complete whole person versus two incomplete people. So that's kind of how I try to understand the relationship between man and woman as a very beautiful symbiotic relationship.

Mmm.

Yeah, I like that.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. No, 100%, 100 % agree.

I also want go back to something else you said. I was thinking about this. had a guest on my show and we were talking about, actually I was thinking back, we were talking about this reproductive rights part of it. I got a chance just recently to do a prayer at our Iowa state capitol and we just had a big ruling coming up about life and Supreme Court was going to rule whether not abortion was a right in our constitution. And so we had to walk for life. And I remember

Mm-hmm.

Nice.

Thinking about the way we have framed this conversation about the rights of the mother or the rights of the child is really the wrong place to start that conversation. It's not really about rights because rights are endowed to us by our Creator. They're given to us by God. It's more about the fact that that child is a gift and all life is a gift. If we lose sight of the fact that that's a gift of God, I think we lose sight of

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

the Christian perspective of why do we value it so much because it's not ours to create. It was created by someone else, a higher power, God, and we respect life by how we honor that. So I tried to kind of reframe the conversation, not about rights, but more about the gift of God and what life is.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Right, and it's also just like I said about the helper. When you think of yourself as a helper, you think of yourself as a consumer instead of an investor. And it's the same thing with a child. Why do we have a whole generation, Gen Z, that says, I'm not having kids. Why? Because they see them as consumers. What are they going to take from me? What are they going to consume? When really, when you become a parent, what you're doing is you're investing. These children are investors. They're investing into the kingdom. They're investing into the economy. They're investing into the world.

And until we make that switch, I don't know if we're gonna up our population at all.

So let's get into your book a little more. I'm kind of curious. Again, the Word of War on Women is a fascinating title. But you discuss biblical women in your book. Is there a particular example of a woman in a book that resonated with you more than any other?

my goodness, so I just, loved all of them so much. One of my favorites, can I give you two, is that okay? Can I give you two, okay. So one is J.L., I talk a lot about J.L. And for me, a woman in ministry, a female preacher, whatever, we love our Deborah because she's a leader, she's a judge, but I don't know, I favor J.L. a little bit more. And I think it's because she could've easily been looked aside.

Sure.

She's in her tent. General Sisera is running from Deborah and Bayrak and all the other Israelites and he shows up at her tent. sometimes not just women but men too, we think what do we have to offer God? What do we have to fight the enemy? But here's the enemy in her tent and he asks for water. She looks around, there's no water. But you know what she does have? She gives him what she does have and that is milk.

Water energizes, but milk coats the stomach and it relaxes you. And so now he's asleep on her floor.

She knows he's the enemy. I bet she's probably thinking, well, I would like a sword, like a typical warrior, but I don't have a sword. What do I have? I have a tent peg because I am in a village full of tent makers and she grabs that tent peg and she puts it into his temple and she kills the enemy with what she has. And I think we obsess over, and I do it too, we obsess over what we don't have.

when sometimes God has already put things in our hands to use. And it's the same thing with JL. No, she didn't have a sword like the regular, the Israelites that were fighting, but she had a tent peg. She got what was in her hand and she used it. And my other favorite is, and I'm going to pronounce her name incorrectly, think, Joeshiva. I'm pretty sure I pronounced that rightly, Joeshiva. I...

She is found in Second Kings and Second Chronicles and it's just a small portion. She does something so huge, but yet we just get a glimpse of her. Her brother has died. All of her nieces and nephews are getting slaughtered because Queen Natalia is trying to wipe away anybody in the lineage of King Daemon. And she finds her one-year-old nephew, Joash, and she scoops him up. She rescues him, locks him, and...

in his nurse in a room for seven years until he is able to take out or able to come out and take his rightful place on the throne. But who kind of gets the credit for that in scripture? Her husband kind of gets the credit for it. And I think the reason why I love her so much is because she made a huge sacrifice. She risked her life to save her nephew, to make sure that the line of David was protected.

And she gets this tiny little blip in scripture, you almost miss it. And I think that takes a lot of humility when people, when you risk your life for something, when you sacrifice for something and people don't recognize it. People maybe not give you the credit for what you have done. It could be something so huge, but yet the credit kind of goes to somebody else. And in my eyes, I don't know her.

but I'm hoping to meet her in heaven. I'll just be like, that had to, I just want to say that probably had to take a lot of humility on your part to make that sacrifice and not get any credit for that.

That's awesome story. So I'm curious, we started out talking about the things that spiritual warfare women are facing in our society today. What are some of the key lies you think Belie

believe that culture is telling women today, and how does your book address some of those lies?

One of the biggest ones is that we can be men. I think that's pretty prominent. That we can be men, that we're equal to men. And I heard it said it once this way, we're not equal, we're unique. And yes, God sees us as equal in a way because we are both made in his image. So we're equal in the fact that we're both made in his image, but we have to embrace that we're unique. And I think one of the lies that comes in, especially in the church, it means, okay, well then if I'm woman,

then I have to fit into this box.

but you look all throughout scripture, there is no woman set inside a complete box. They are all different. It's the same in politics. You have the political left that says you have to, as a woman, fit this way, and the political right that says you have to fit this way. And Jesus never did that. The first woman, you don't even, we have no idea what Eve's personality was, except for that she was duped by a serpent. That's all we know.

I mean, if we are gonna fit into some sort of box, wouldn't she be it? Yet we're so busy trying to be Proverbs 31 woman when maybe God has called us to be a JL to fight the enemy. Or maybe he has called us to be Rahab, rescuing God's sons. I don't know, that's this between you and Jesus. And I think that's one of the lies that we're believing is we have to be in, or I, I'm gonna make some people mad. I hate the word role. I'm so tired of the word role.

Well, men have their role and women have their role. Well, I feel like I just, have the role of what Jesus is telling me to do. What is God asking of me? Yes, I'm different. Yes, I'm unique as a female. I don't have to be a man, but I'm also unique as an individual. So going back to the lie of trying to be like men, my daughter just joined the military and she's a senior in high school. So as soon as she,

graduate, she'll be leaving for basic training. So I have been creating meetings with other women in the military. Just let's sit down. Let's ask questions. Let's talk. What is it like to be a Christian in the military, especially a Christian woman? What is this going to be like, especially in a male dominated field? And one woman said to her, listen, Paige, you go in there. You're going to be surrounded by men. Don't do your job trying to be like a man. Do your job.

to prove that you as a woman bring gifts to the table. And I think that, and that resonated with me so much, that's what we need to be doing as females. We need to be, instead of trying to be like men, trying to compete with men, we need to say, are the gifts and the talents that I have, and I'm going to bring them to the table as a woman.

I love that. And that's really important to remember because again, goes back to what we talked initially, you have to be you. You can't be somebody else. have to be who God created you to be. Having written a book myself, I know there's always that moment that's challenging. What was the most challenging part of writing this book?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I think getting over the fact that I'm not qualified enough and I just have to look and go, you know what? I have to join the club. Everybody feels unqualified to do what God has asked them to do. And I just have to get over it and push through because you just have that constant, who am I? Who am I to do this? Do I feel like I'm superior to everybody else? Because now look at me, I've written a book and that's not it. You're just being obedient.

of the consistency of it because there's this romanticism of writing a book, right? That I am gonna go with my earbuds in the coffee shop and listen to cool jazzy cafe music and the words are just gonna flow out of my mouth. And that's not what happens. Everybody sees the book, but they don't see everything underneath. All the money, all the tears, all the criticism, all the time, all the research, everything, the late nights, the millions of drafts that go into it.

And I think also too, well, this isn't really an answer to your question, but for me, it helped me understand that I can do hard things that I don't know that I can do, like the unknown, because you don't know how to write a book until you've actually written it. And so I think for me, yes, it was that challenge, but it also showed me, I can do hard things that are unknown.

I love that. Yeah, and you're right about it. Although I did have the coffee and the coffee shop and earbuds on. But there was there were those moments where I would leave the cop side go in the morning with my coffee to Starbucks. I get my cinnamon doce latte.

I'm jealous. I'm so jealous.

Mm-hmm.

in the spring and then my pumpkin spice in the fall. And they knew me when I came in the store. But when I left after that morning hour of writing, my brain hurt. I remember just thinking, it just hurt. And then when you finally got to the point where you got, it was ready to be released, I was terrified. I'm like, what if people hate it? You know? And then when it started to sell, you're like, people are responding back about it and they didn't like certain things or they did like certain things or you should have said this or you shouldn't have said that.

Hahaha!

Yes. Mm-hmm.

Wait! Yes!

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

So yeah, it's a tormenting process to write about.

Well, yeah, and you mentioned when the book comes out because there's that there's that part of you people are excited. Like the book that I just released not too long ago was called Underachiever, Finding Contentment in an Achievement Obsessed World. Well, title, Underachiever, it resonates with people. And so I have all these people going, my gosh, I'm so excited. I need that book. And all I could think was, you're going to be so disappointed.

You

You're gonna hate it. I've worked so hard on it, but you're gonna hate it.

you

That's so funny. I'm curious, so you wrote this book and you finished it. I'm curious, what was the biggest surprise that you got out of writing this

that people liked it.

There you go.

I thought it was going to create more waves than what it did. And I was surprised at how women embraced it because in the very beginning, I specifically say, and I'm going to use churchy pastoral terms here. I said, this is not a complementarian versus egalitarian book. I don't have time for that conversation because there's a spiritual war on right now. I'm not going there. This is a book about getting into the fight wherever you're at.

And I really thought it was going to upset some people who were complementarian and it was going to upset some people that were egalitarian because I feel like most of us women are hybrids, quite frankly, and we pull from different sides. And when you look at women, you don't see a complete complementarian and you don't see a complete egalitarian. It's like there's this spectrum. And I was shocked.

especially at the egalitarian women that are like staunch egalitarians that read the book and they were like, wow, thank you. I was like, okay, I thought you were gonna be mad at me.

So I think that was honestly my biggest surprise.

That's so funny. So what do you hope people who read your book get out of it? What do want the key takeaway to be?

My hope and prayer is that they would see that they're unique as female and that they would be comfortable in their own skin because if women don't recognize that they're unique and that they have a portion of God's image that needs to be used, they are going to be so uncomfortable in their own skin the rest of their life. They're going to spend their whole lives trying to be something that they're not. And I have been shocked at those that have read it that have said, wow,

I never thought of myself like this before. Just gaining that freedom of female, that freedom of being feminine and that it's okay, that there is power in it and it is not a problem in this world.

I love that. So here's my other favorite question to ask my guests. What do you want your legacy to be?

Okay.

boy.

It has grown into more simplicity as I've gotten older. I think in my 20s and my 30s, was definitely, I want to be this big time preacher and I want to travel the world and I want to see and do all the things and I want to reach as many people as possible. And I think that's noble to want to reach as many people as possible. There's nothing wrong with that. But when we're trying to reach as many people as possible, we reach no one, I think.

and you can easily neglect the people that have been placed, that God has placed right in front of you. And when I think about my personal legacy and what I want on my tombstone is that this woman was an excellent wife and mother. Again, so cliche, but that's just what I'm learning as I get older. I still have dreams of things that I wanna do and I'm still working towards those dreams. There's more books that I'm writing.

conferences that I want to speak at. I still want to do all of those things. But for a long time, I think I always put my kids in my family first, but I hated that I put my kids in my family first because I so desperately wanted to be this successful person. And now that I'm older, I'm like, I just want my legacy to be when I pass away, that my kids are like, my mom fought for me. My mom.

loved me. I'm tearing up. I'm sorry. My mom did this and that and showed me what it was like to be a follower of Christ. Showed me what it was like to be a disciple. Showed me what it was like to sacrifice and to love for others. And that is what I'm hoping that my legacy is. And just the fact that their lives are set up better than mine and my husband's.

I feel like when my husband and I got married, there was so much we didn't know. We didn't grow up in Christian homes. I don't want to put our parents down because that's not what I'm trying to do. There was just a lot of things that we didn't know that we're teaching our own kids. And they are already a step above of where we were at their age. And that is the legacy that I want to leave knowing that

they are going to do things better, that they are going to be set up better, that they're going to have better knowledge than what we have.

That's awesome. I love that. I love that focus. That's really cool. As we wrap things up

What key takeaways do you want people to get from our conversation today?

man.

If you're a woman, you don't have to be a man. It's okay. If you're a man, you don't have to be feminine. That your femininity and your masculinity are not problems. They're answers to the world. They both have their own strengths and they can so be different. You look at like masculinity. You don't have to be Samson.

and are able to bench press a thousand pounds or whatever. You look at David, David was a musician. All the men in scripture are all different, yet they all did it as men, as masculine men, and it's the same with women. They were all different. had Deborah who was a warrior. You had Rahab who has a horrible past, but has been redeemed and is in...

the lineage of Jesus. mean, there is such a spectrum of women and they all brought different gifts to the table and they all did it as women. And I think that's the biggest thing that we as Christians, that I would like Christians to take away from this conversation.

That is great. Where can people buy your book, The Real War on Women, and learn more about you?

So the Real War on Women is available right on Amazon.com. You just stick the title right in and it'll pop right up. You can find me, RachelGentlemen.com. I am also on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. I know I'm too old for TikTok, but I'm there. And the panhandle, the panhandle, the handle is all the same, at RachelGentlemen.

Are you doing TikTok dances on TikTok or? okay.

I am not doing dances. I have not gotten that far yet. I just do funny middle-aged mom stuff. That's all. So it's just something fun for me.

OK. So no cast, just you being a mom.

No, no, I don't want to hurt anybody's eyes. So we're just, I like to make people laugh if I can. And I love that people come up and they're like, my gosh, I love your TikTok videos. It may be just be five people, but if I can just make somebody laugh for a half a minute, then cool.

You

That's so cool. Rachel, thanks so much for coming on and sharing what you do. It was so good to have you on.

Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you for your time. I absolutely loved our conversation.

Well, thank you. Everybody follow her book, pick it up, The Real War on Women, and leave a like, especially review on Amazon because that's how the book grows and knowledge people can find it. So do that and look her up on TikTok and be impressed and amazed by the great content she's sharing.

Yes.

Ha ha.

that's awesome.

Thanks, Rachel.

Thank so much. I really appreciate it. You know, it so funny. I was so tired and lethargic today and now I feel so much better. sometimes I just need a good conversation to get me get me energized.

Well good, I'm glad.

That's what we need. We need to have more conversations that circle around God's Word and our purpose. So thank you. Have a blessed. Yeah, definitely. We'll definitely stay in touch.

Yes, yes, thank you. Let me know if you need anything else from me.

Okay, sounds good.

That was great, Ray.