Created For Covering: Understanding the Concept of Safety and Covering In Relationships for Men and Women

By BIshop Mark Chironna Ph.D. and Robert B. Shaw Jr.

Safety is one of the core longings in every human being. Safety seems to be more difficult to come by these days. The feeling of safety begins in a family, in the family relationships. Over the last few decades, our society has gone through many changes that have affected people and the way we relate to each other. One of those changes is the growing yet subtle pursuit of self-centered independence. This book can help us discover ( or rediscover) the benefits of living under God’s design, as it relates to the concept of covering. We are all created to be under a covering. God designed us to be free—but not independent! Come and explore, from the beginning through today, how men and women and their families can relate to each other in such a way as to have an impact upon their world. God has covered us, recovered us, and desires for us to be responsible in covering what He has given us.

“Dr. Shaw’s book is timely for a generation in need of a godly, balanced perspective on the reality and blessings that covering provide. The principles that Dr. Shaw communicates are born out of his own experiences and example as husband, father, teacher, counselor and spiritual leader. This book identifies the causes of root problems, but even more importantly, it provides essential biblical and practical solutions for age-old conflicts.”
—Rev. David A. Longobardo, Pastor Emeritus, World Victory International Christian Center, Greensboro, North Carolina

“Robert Shaw’s book puts a bomb into the pop-Christian psychology of marriage, navigating deep into God’s calling for marriage, security in relationships, and striking truth in our culture’s failure to unselfishly examine God’s heart for marriage and relationships as revealed in Scripture.”
—W. Scott Lineberry, PhD, LPC, founder and president of The Center For Life and Performance, Greensboro, NC

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781449782740

BIshop Mark Chironna Ph.D.

Christian counselor Dr. Robert B. Shaw Jr. is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and Supervisor, dually licensed in Virginia and North Carolina. He is also an ordained minister, serving as a youth pastor, Christian education director, adult education director, musician, and executive pastor in churches in New Jersey, Colorado, Maryland, and in North Carolina, for over twenty-five years. He has also been a middle school and high school teacher and athletic coach in both the public and private school environments. Dr. Shaw has spent several years counseling in church settings and community agencies and counseling military personnel and their families near Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. He also ministers regularly in the Philippines. He specializes in trauma related issues; addictions; and victims of abuse, depression, anxiety disorders, life adjustment issues, loss and grief, counseling church leaders and pastors, adolescents, and adults. Dr. Shaw’s is a unique prophetic voice in the kingdom caring for hurting people, and he serves as an adjunct professor for a Christian university, an author, and a sought-after conference speaker. Dr. Shaw has a Bachelor of Arts degree in religious studies from Wagner College, New York and a Master of Divinity degree from Christian International Theological School, Florida. He also has a Master of Arts in professional counseling from Liberty University, Virginia and a Doctor of Ministry degree in formational counseling, a practical theology, from Ashland Theological Seminary, Ohio. He is a member of the American Association of Christian Counseling. Dr. Shaw enjoys running, sports, the beach, and spending time with friends and family. For contact information requests and speaking arrangements please send to – [e-mail]

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Copyright © 2016 Robert B. Shaw, Jr.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-8275-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8276-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8274-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013901244

Unless otherwise indicated, Bible quotations are taken from the New American Standard Version of the Bible. © 1999, Zondervan Publishing House.

All names used are fictitious, and do not represent the real names of the individuals.

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/23/2024

Contents

ForewordBishop Mark J. Chironna, Ph.D.

Introduction

Chapter 1In the Beginning—God’s Design

Chapter 2Divine Delegation

Chapter 3Covering for Men

Chapter 4Covering for Women

Chapter 5Covering versus Controlling

Chapter 6When the Covering Is Lost

Chapter 7How to Restore the Covering

Chapter 8As It Should Be: A Summary

References

Foreword

O ur ability to achieve our full potential as God has intended requires relationship and connectivity. At the most elementary level, the kingdom of God, which is in the Holy Spirit, is all about relationship. As a matter of fact, everything in the kingdom is related. Failure to understand that leads to missed opportunities, missed moments, and even missed destinies. The psalmist tells us that God places the solitary in families, and that He is a Father to the fatherless. So, from heaven’s perspective, right relationship involves being connected to a family. No one needs to read too many news headlines or watch too many reality television shows to realize that families are in trouble, men and women are in crisis in regards to their masculinity and femininity, and confusion about roles and functions in our social containers is prevalent. In fact, we live in an hour when all of our social containers are in chaos, from the family to the church or synagogue, the community, and sadly even our elected officials, who are assigned to govern the affairs of life on our behalf and uphold the will of the people. We live in an hour when the masses are feeling out of sync, out of sorts, and even out of touch. We are far more vulnerable in this hour than we are visionary. There is hope, however, to reclaim, recover, and recommit to principles that actually restore balance and equilibrium to our lives. My dear friend, Dr. Robert Shaw, has decided to take on the sometimes perplexing and controversial concept of covering in terms of its purpose in relationships in the kingdom of God. There is no question that for some, a great deal of damage was done when those in authority, who themselves had by sheer determination, performance orientation, and the will to succeed, achieved levels of leadership in the body of Christ without the character to match the positions they held. Their promotions were based on their ability to move a crowd, preach a good sermon or make a good speech, and convince others that they had what it takes to lead, only to discover, once they had arrived at the position they had sought to attain, that there was a painfully evident gap between their position and their person. The result was, and always is, that instead of offering security , safety , and protection (i.e., covering) for those under their care, they operated and still operate in a spirit of control, so that covering has become a lid to oppress and hold people under instead of an umbrella to provide shelter from the storms of life. Covering is God’s idea. Sadly, there has been so much dysfunction prevalent in the lives of the masses both churched and un-churched in recent decades that covering has lost its significance, its essence, and its essential necessity in the lives of far too many people. Individuals out of their own dysfunction, have opted for independence as opposed to interdependence in every social container, from the family all the way to the highest levels of government. If ever families, churches, communities, governments, and nations needed to recover a genuine, healthy, God-centered, wholesome awareness and experience of covering, the time is now.

My deepest appreciation goes to Dr. Shaw for taking the time to instruct us, both theologically and psychologically from a wealth of his own personal history and experience in the people-helping business, regarding this important truth and its appropriate application to our lives. Take your time as you read this learning manual, and once you read it, do what it says to do. Your life and the lives of those related to you will all benefit from it, because once you become the change you desire to see, others begin to experience that same transformation.

Bishop Mark J. Chironna, M.A., Ph.D.

Church on the Living Edge

Mark Chironna Ministries

Orlando, Florida

Introduction

S afety: All individuals want to know that they are safe and secure. It is one of the six core longings, (safety; significance; purpose; belonging; understanding; and love) introduced in the previous ‘Created for Significance" book. People spend a lot of money on home security systems or personal weapons for their home. Neighborhood watches are popular in many communities. Schools are now seeking ways to keep their children safe while on campus, especially in light of school violence and shootings that have taken place at places like Columbine High School in Colorado, and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Automobile companies go to great lengths to engineer and develop safety features for their cars. Companies that manufacture strollers and baby car seats have made products that provide as much safety as possible for our children. Even in the military, training and weaponry is designed to minimize the aspect of placing our military personnel in harms’ way, if possible. Factories and business firms teach safety in the work place as a part of their orientation for new employees. Sexual and physical harassment accusations are usually taken seriously and have zero tolerance, in order to assure the employee of a safe environment in which to work. Financial plans, budgets, and retirement accounts are designed to provide a safe and secure futures in good times and difficult times. Our personal belongings, our loved ones, and our relationships are important, and we desire safety and security for all.

For example, Tanya Metaksa in her book, Safe, Not Sorry (1997), provides many details as to how to be safe in several different times and places. Here are some basic helps:

Home Security

• Use 1.5 inch case-hardened steel deadbolts on doors

• Use timer lights, motion detector lights; keep shrubs trimmed so as to not provide a place for intruders to hide behind

• Use battery powered or third party monitoring system; even a medium size dog can be a deterrent

• Never give entire key chain to car mechanic – only car key

Travel Security

• If hotel clerk calls out your room number, ask for another room

• Carry mace

• Rental cars should have no identifying marks or stickers

• Have neighbors collect your mail, take in garbage cans, keep grass cut

Phone Security

• Do not buy over the phone from anyone you do not know or cannot verify

• Leave generic phone message; if you are a single woman, have a male friend provide the voice on your phone message

• List your name in phone book under a different name or use initials for your first and middle names, so when someone calls you asking for the name in the phone book, you know he or she is a stranger

Automotive Security

• Have your keys ready to open your car door as you approach – (electronic keys are the best)

• Do not spend several minutes listening to music while parked; if you are a woman, do not spend several minutes putting on makeup while parked – leave from where you are as soon as possible

• Walk to your car with your head up, looking around you, not with head down as if you were trying to hide in the open

• Know how to read a map, not just a GPS

Physical Security

• Use your instincts and honor your red flags

• Don’t be afraid to scream if necessary

• ATMs – use ATMs near lighting, indoors, in grocery stores, drive-throughs; no secluded ATMs

• Parking garages – keep one hand free at all times; use ramps, not cramped stairwells

• If you feel you are being followed while driving, do not go home – call police or drive to police or fire station

• Know the bell button on elevators; if someone brushes up against you, leave the area

• Jogging – use club or home treadmill as a preference; if you do jog outside, know your surroundings, don’t jog alone, do not use iPod if by yourself; be careful what you wear – while you have the right to wear whatever, criminals do not care about your rights, they are sight feeders

• Purses – keep money, license, ID in a pocket, not purse if possible; if someone wants your purse, let it go – don’t fight for it – the quicker you place distance between you and the thief, the better and safer for you

Safety in relationships, the subject of this book, is perhaps the most needed and less prepared for environment than any other. Relationships are the foundation of families and cultures. We can all do well to learn what to look for in someone to feel safe in their presence. We can all benefit from learning policies and values of individuals, groups, and even governments in order to determine the choices we make as to where to live, who to spend time with, and what environments to choose to be a part of. Leaders, whether they be in the workplace, in the government, in churches, in the community, or in the home, need to understand the longing we all have to be safe. Consequences are deep and wide when someone feels safe, as well as when someone has just been hurt, abused, or mistreated. Those who follow leaders want to know that their well-being is important to those they choose to follow. All of us desire safety in our relationships.

We have often heard about leadership concepts in many arenas, such as in the marketplace, politics, and even in religious institutions. Recent concepts such as mentoring or coaching are very popular and relatively effective for corporate executives and ministry leaders alike.

We