Today is my 39th birthday, the last year before I turn 40. I believe this calls for a bit of gratuitous self-reflection, don’t you? As I think about my daughter, I realize what I want for her is what I want for myself–and perhaps what we want universally as women.
***
In the work place, home, in courts, classrooms and cathedrals, women want to be seen, heard, respected, and taken seriously. In a noisy crowd, we want our voices to count.
We want “kindred spirit” friends and life partners who adore us. We want to be loved, admired, honored, and cherished. We long to know and be known. We want to find a tribe where we belong.
We want to belly laugh until tears run down the creases on the sides of our eyes and not take ourselves or the world so seriously all the time.
We want to do meaningful work—not just as mothers and wives, but also as we live out our personal callings to paint, write, sculpt, lead, heal, teach, preach, crunch numbers, and transform dull spaces into decorative places that cultivate creativity. We want to know our lives made a difference in the world-that some seed we planted while we were alive will flourish long after we are gone.
We want to be a voice for the voiceless and a champion for the oppressed.
We want to make peace with our bodies and stand naked in front of the mirror without self-loathing, shame or fear. We want to eat when we are hungry and stop eating when we are full. We want to recognize that wrinkles, bulges and stretch marks are beautiful signs of a life well-lived.
We want to be known for who we are and not for what we look like, what we do, or what we don’t do. We want to be enough.
We want balance. We want to be healthy. We want to be strong—physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. We want to be confident.
We want courage to try new things, meet new people and travel to new lands. And yet we want contentment with where we are, who we’re with, and what we’re doing, too.
We want to relax every once in a while. We want to snuggle on the couch, walk in the woods, or sleep in. We want to lose ourselves in music and dancing. We want to be so engrossed in conversation that we forget task and time.
We want to look back on our lives without regret, proud of who we’ve become and satisfied with where we are.
We want soul rest. We long for deep peace that comes in knowing we belong to God and that nothing can rip us from his hand.
We want to taste heaven on earth, catch glimpses of Jesus in our neighbors, and notice evidence of God in creation.
We want to be women who dance without shame, question without fear, and speak without being muted.
We want to be women who love fiercely and freely, because we are fiercely and freely loved.
***
Join me this month as we explore the theme of raising strong girls. I have way too many ideas and not enough time, but my goal is to post on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays this month. Shoot me an email at scrapingraisins (dot) gmail (dot) com if you’d like to guest post on this topic.
As it’s sex trafficking awareness month, I’ll also be sharing some resources on that topic. Sign up for my mid-month digest and end-of-month secret newsletter to stay updated on all the posts as well as to get links to interesting books, podcasts, recipes and articles I’ve come across this month.
