Mistress of the Domain ~ a defense of the word mistress
One major complaint that we have heard through the years about the study is the title, “Mistress of the Domain.” People do not like the word mistress, and there is good reason because the word has garnered a negative meaning: a mistress is most commonly a woman in a long-term relationship with a man who is married to someone else. However, when we use the term “Mistress of the Domain” in this Bible study, this is NOT the way we are using it. To understand the reason for the how and why we use this title, we need to do a vocabulary lesson.
Historically, and in other contexts, the word mistress means a female master or a woman who has power, authority, and/or ownership. This is the first definition provided in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and this first definition is how the word Mistress is being used in the Five Aspects of Woman. The second definition is a female teacher or tutor who has achieved mastery in some field or a woman who is considered especially notable for something. The third definition is something personified as a female that rules, directs, or dominates. Then, the fourth definition given is the woman in the relationship with a married man. Historically, the word has denoted a very positive and powerful meaning.
In truth, the word mistress, as defined as a female master or a woman who has power, authority, and/or ownership, is exactly the word that we want to use. We believe that it is important to establish the biblical truth that women are made in the very image of God to rule, subdue, and to produce. The truth carries with it the reality that all women, by the creational will of God, exercise power, authority, and ownership in the domains that the Lord has entrusted to them. Every single woman will answer to God for her stewardship of the domain He has entrusted to her (Romans 14:12; 2 Corinthians 5:10).
However, we have heard the complaints, and we have brainstormed and discussed what might be a better title. I have listened to the discussions. I have read most of the emails. So far, no alternative provided fits the bill. Just now, when I looked in the thesaurus for a synonym, for a better word for us to use, all the words listed dealt with the fourth definition. I just asked AI what would be a good word to describe a woman who has “power, authority, and/or ownership,” and the following is the list it spit out: matriarch, queen, powerhouse, empress, magistrate, Valkyrie. No. None of those will do. Viceroy is a great term that the study uses to denote someone who is the representative ruler of a sovereign king. I didn’t know this, but there is a feminine form of viceroy, and it is vicereine. However, this name just means the wife of a viceroy, and this meaning is not full enough.
So, we have a problem: people don’t like the word mistress. Basically, there are two solutions to this problem. The first is to find a new term that works better. I’ve now walked you through what that search looks like, and hopefully you understand a little more now of why we have yet to heed the calls for a change. The second solution we have is to do a vocabulary lesson and to encourage people to expand their personal vocabularies. Many reasons exist for us to stick with the second solution, and these reasons are worthy of your consideration.
While our initial impulse usually is to not use a word that has started to have a change in meaning, through disuse or misuse, the better thing may be to dig in our heels and fight. I feel this way about the rainbow. The rainbow, Scripturally, is specifically assigned with the meaning to be the visual symbol of a promise of God. They are beautiful and awe inspiring, and they lead me to worship and praise my Creator when I see them. Yet, a segment of our society has taken this symbol and claimed it as their own to stand for something that is in utter defiance to the Creator. I refuse to give it up without a fight. Now the word mistress does not evoke in me the same fight, however, I do not think that we must abandon the word because it has a negative connotation.
Another reason that we need to focus on strengthening our vocabulary skills right from the start, is because the issue with the word mistress is just the first among many words in this study that we must stop and define. You think the word mistress is a hard word to deal with? If you give up on this one at the outset, how in the world are you going to deal with the title of the next aspect: Helper-Completer? This one is non-negotiable for it is a direct translation of the Hebrew, and it has caused many to throw away the book and run for the hills. The name of the third aspect, Lifegiver, if you ask Merriam-Webster, isn’t even a word. To even begin to understand the gist of Lady Wisdom and Glory of Man, we must do some serious defining our terms and theological lifting. Every lesson is going to introduce terms and ideas that will require thinking and effort, and this is a good thing. We should all be continually learning and growing and being challenged. A major part of the learning process is refining one’s vocabulary and defining one’s terms.
From the outset, the Five Aspects of Woman is not your garden variety study. Rather, it is a highly structured and well thought through work wrought of years of biblical and theological training designed to teach a biblical theology of human sexuality. When I first picked up the study 26 years ago when I was but 20 years old via the recommendation of my pastor’s wife, I had no idea what I was in for. However, I trusted her, and I purchased the books. I cracked them open and worked through them by myself one summer. I remember struggling with the vocabulary a bit, and I remember having to look some words up. I don’t recall if the word mistress perturbed me or not. I know Helper-Completer did. I do recall being intrigued and drawn into reading my Bible and digging into it like never before. When I finished the study, I had been changed. I wanted to know God and His Word more, and I have been in pursuit of that ever since. This Bible study was worth the effort I had to put into it.
I hear from women all the time, “This is the most important Bible study I have ever done. It changed my life.” I agree. I have completed my fair share of Bible studies over the past 26 years, yet this one study holds a very special place on my bookshelf, and not just because I now work with Five Aspects Ministries. I work with Five Aspects Ministries now because I know how important this study is and how God has used it in my life and countless others to transform our lives for the better. God has called me to be the Mistress of this Domain – stewarding the Bible study materials of Five Aspects Ministries, and it is an honor and a great challenge.
Kristine Vermillion
Five Aspects Ministries
Editor and Director of Women’s Ministries
““We must consider our domain and life course, not only from the active viewpoint (I have the responsibility to rule well for God), but also from the passive viewpoint (God is the Potter, and I am the clay). We are a substance in God’s hands, and He is shaping us. He is the Main Actor in the drama of salvation. We receive our domain and life course from His hands.” ”
Review of Living True to Season—
Nature’s Seasons Display the Pattern for Our Own
Author: Priscilla Fisher (Illustrator and editor for Aspects Ministries, 1992-2014)
Reviewer: Barbara Mouser
Why read a book about seasons? Don’t we already know the little we need to know as modern people?
Most of us don’t herd sheep, milk cows, or pick crops. For us, seasons have to do with pumpkins we buy at the store in October or a new bathing suit in June. We might notice the wind or the rain; but, for most of us, our livelihoods do not depend upon the seasons. Air conditioning allows us to be warm in winter and cool in summer. All the fruits and nuts are available at any time of the year due to modern food processing methods. It is easy to think we already have everything all the time by our own methods. Modern life encourages these misconceptions. So, planting and harvest don’t mean very much to most of us. They are not really deeply entwined with the fabric and work of our lives.
Not knowing or valuing the seasons of nature, we find it easier to gloss over the seasons of our lives. God’s Word tells us that the seasons of our lives will not be so easily glossed over! Even as our biological lives are marked by seasons of youth, prime, decline, and old age, the Bible reveals that these physical truths are actually but pictures and templates of the even greater spiritual truths of life. God gives us resources—to develop in youth, to use and expand in the prime of life, to complete and harvest in the autumn of life, that we may entrust these riches to others before we die and go to give account of our labors to God.
Those who have walked with some attention to the seasons of life will find that Living True to Season brings wonderful new focus and clarity about where you are in life and what you should be doing—not only for yourself, but in relation to the generations before and after you as well.
Unfortunately, some of us are resistant to learning about seasons because there is a hint of regimentation in them—we might have to do a certain thing at a certain time. If we are honest, we know that all of us have failed to live in season in some way. We did not use our youth to learn. We did not use our prime to build and cultivate our work; we retired early so we wouldn’t have to harvest. We might deny winter altogether, refusing to downsize, consolidate, entrust, and wait for God. Thankfully, Living True to Season is not a guilt trip; it points us to a God of hope and renewal. He is the One who makes the barren fruitful and the deserts bloom.
I have known Priscilla Fisher for 35 years; 20 of those years she has spent working on this book. It has been well-pondered and sifted. Living in the country and near the Amish, Priscilla is equipped to be our guide in renewing our basic knowledge of nature and man’s relationship to it. Being a serious student of God’s Word on this topic, she is also well-equipped to open for us what God has said about nature’s seasons and our own. The seasons of nature and of our lives are beautiful, needful, and created to be a guide and blessing. So, take the Seasons Tour with Priscilla! You will find yourself encouraged to enjoy the seasons of nature. More importantly, you will be exhorted and equipped to walk more wisely in the seasons of your life in harmony with God who made the seasons and placed you in them.