I met with my teacher today to work on my goals. [One of our first assignments was to create measurable goals for our growth that year.] I was encouraged by what we accomplished. She didn't pressure me into making stupid "number goals", but she did help me see how to make my goals measurable and specific. For my goal of improving my communication skills she suggested that I look at people who demonstrate the qualities I desire and think about how to emulate them. For prayer she suggested that I try to pray each day and think about what makes prayer "good". With initiative she said that I need to find a specific area in my life that I need it in and work on that. She's an interesting teacher. I need to think more about how her teaching me fits in with the whole women's roles issue. Her defense - and I've heard it many times before - is that she feels God has called her to do this. It seems that she has thought this issue through, and she said she would quit if she became convinced that she was in the wrong. I think that's good enough for me. I don't know what my conservative friends would say about all this, but it doesn't matter. Nor does the path of least resistance. I pray that God will give me wisdom and peace in this issue. I am working on a theory for interpretation of Biblical commands, but that's something for another day.

I've changed a lot of my views about the Bible since I was concerned about being taught by a woman at the beginning of last year. In my heart I've always felt that it's absurd not to allow women to teach men, but at this point in time my beliefs about the Bible caused me a lot of grief on this issue. I'd actually spent whole weeks of the previous summer wrestling with the issue of women's participation in church (at a conservative Bible camp). Some of the people I met at camp cautioned me about the hidden dangers of going to Bible school, and I'm sure that their worst fears would have been confirmed if they heard I had a female teacher.