I'm a single mother, and I've felt like a second-class Christian my whole adult life. Everyone assumes something went wrong - divorce or premarital sex or poor choices. The church is full of intact families. I sit alone with my kids.
John addresses this letter to 'the lady chosen by God and to her children.' Whoever this woman is, she's leading a Christian household. She's doing the discipleship work. And John honors her leadership directly. Not through a husband. On her own authority.
That moment of seeing myself in that - a woman leading a household in faith without a male authority - something shifted. I'm not a failed wife. I'm not incomplete. I'm raising these kids in faith, and that work has dignity. It matters.
I started teaching in our church's children's ministry. I started speaking about what it means to follow Jesus as a single parent. And I realized how many other single mothers were waiting for permission to lead, to speak, to matter. John gave me that permission.
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