Women

Yesterday was International Women’s Day.  I’m not often big on many of these “days of recognition” (though I must say, National Potato Chip Day and Companies that Care Day often rank high on my priority list….).

However, this one was different in my heart, as women from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and women from neighboring Rwanda met together on a bridge to stand and call for peace and hope.  This, in countries where women cannot walk to get water or go to a field without the verifiable fear of being raped or killed. 

(photo by Women for Women International) 

What is it that gives women this special hope, resilience, and light?  I believe we were given it from the beginning, from before we were even born.  Life and goodness spring forth from women, and as Sheri Dew said, “No woman is a more vibrant instrument in the hands of the Lord than a woman of God who is thrilled to be who she is.”  I think that one of the greatest sadnesses, in any culture, is the devaluing of women.  The influences, both stark and subtle, that convince them that they are nothing, that they have nothing to offer, that they are of no worth. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I learn this a little more each time I am blessed with another daughter. 

The light, the hope that is born with each and every woman is something remarkable.  Something I have been truly blessed to behold.  I count it among my chiefest blessings.  Every day, I get to see their hearts and their minds, open and loving, ready to help, serve, and love anyone that they meet.  So much in this world tries desperately to take that natural gift out of women, before they ever realize they have it.  
As I prepare for my fifth little woman, I count myself truly blessed, and I know just how much I have been given.  I am humbled by so much unearned mercy in my life, which mercy I will endeavor all my days to be worthy of.  My heart longs to fill each of my little women with as much hope and confidence as I can.  I want each of them to be “thrilled to be who she is,” so that they may each take that light out into the world and change it for the better.  “We are the ones we have been waiting for,” I recently heard from an inspired woman.

“One woman can change anything, but many women can change everything.”

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