by Shannon Steuerwald

I’ve been doing some reading about frogs lately. Their eyes are enough to scare me! With over 5,400 different kinds of frogs, I have come to believe that the Lord had fun speaking the frogs’ creation into existence. Brazil is home to the smallest frog (no larger than a dime), and the largest frog can be found in West Africa (weighing in at six pounds). Some frogs croak or ribbit, but did you know that some pluck like a banjo, sing like a bird, quack like a duck, or even scream like a baby? They have amazing physical abilities: frogs can jump twenty times farther than their body length! Humanly speaking, if we were like frogs, we would be able to jump the length of a basketball court. Remember those scary frog eyes? Well, I kept reading and found out that when frogs have a full mouthful of bugs, they blink their eyes to help them swallow their food. The blinking helps force down the bugs!

God created these slimy creatures with amazing adaptability. Their metamorphosis from tadpoles to frogs is a testimony to God’s magnificent ingenuity as the Creator of this world.

So what do frogs have in common with women’s ministry? Nothing really, but a frog possesses a character trait every woman in ministry should have. After reading about frogs, I wondered what would happen to a frog if it refused to adapt? Within weeks, a glob of jelly-like egg becomes a frog with arms and legs. They start out looking and acting like a fish (with gills and organs that allow them to breathe under water) to looking and behaving like an amphibian (with arms, legs, lungs, and a new digestive system that allows them to eat bugs).

Much of a woman’s job involves adapting. The Bible gives several examples of how women adapted. Noah’s wife had to adapt to Noah’s new calling in life to build an ark. Genesis 7 records her entering the ark with her husband. Talk about adjusting to a new home! She would leave the ark days later to find the need to adjust to a new home after the flood’s devastation. Sarah, Abraham’s wife, had to adapt to a new way of living. She and Abraham lived in Ur, which was one of the most sophisticated towns of their day. Many archeologists believe that Ur had running water in some of the homes. Sarah left with Abraham to sojourn in strange lands and dwell in tents. Sarah had to learn to adapt to a new way of living quite quickly, for a tent is a far cry from a home in Ur. Genesis 12 records Sarah leaving with her husband to follow God’s calling. We could discuss even more women: Ruth, Esther, Rahab, Mary, and Peter’s wife; With each of them, the argument is easily made that they were more usable for the Lord (or their husbands were more usable for the Lord) because they adapted and submitted to what God had for them and their families. Many men have left the ministry or have not pursued a service opportunity in the church because their wife was unwilling to adapt. On the flip side, many men have answered God’s call and found strength in their wife’s ability to adapt. Answering God’s call to preach requires a man to ask his wife to adapt. Saying yes to God’s call to the mission field requires a man to ask his wife to adapt. Volunteering to teach a Sunday school class or serve as a deacon requires a man to ask his wife to adapt. Giving generously to the church and missions requires both man and woman to adapt. Submitting to her husband requires a woman to adapt. And the list could go on and on.

Jesus says to his soon-to-be-disciples in Mark 1:17, “Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.” Those men did not stop and discourse with Jesus about the cost of such a career change. Verse 18 says “straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.” They obeyed first and learned to adapt as each day brought new opportunities. What I especially appreciate about verse 17 is the process of growth: Jesus said He would make them “to become fishers of men.” The transformation did not happen overnight; it was a process that came with much obeying and adapting. Matthew 11:28-30 speaks of coming to Jesus to learn of Him. Could it be that adapting is simply being willing to follow and learn—to obey and adapt—as God directs our lives?

Frogs have built-in instincts to adapt to their surroundings. For women, adapting requires purposeful choices to be made. Adapting is also a character quality we should strive to possess so that our husbands are more able to say yes to the Lord and so that we are more usable for our Lord, too. Adapting is just one way we get to be helpers for our Lord!