Another early morning at the gym and an interesting conversation sparked my heart so deep that I feel the need to share. As a woman, I struggle with self-everything; esteem, body image, worth, dignity. The list can go on and on and it did, until I realized that all of these things cannot be filled or taken away by anyone, including myself. They were given to me by my creater out of love, for love. He created women with what some call feminine genius. Me, a genius, I don't think so, but God, he does. He created us as helpers, as complimentary to men, to fulfill a specific purpose; to help lead each other to HEAVEN.
With that being said, ladies can we please start living this way? Can we reclaim our dignity and worth that we continue to throw away to the lowest bidder (ourselves included)? A simple man by the name of Karol Wojtyla said these profound words, "The task of every MAN is the dignity of every WOMAN, and the task of EVERY woman is the dignity of EVERY man". wow.
This starts with how you see yourself, how you talk to yourself, how you treat yourself, and it carries into how you dress, how you speak to others, and the relationships that you have. As women we need to reclaim our feminity, our true strength. I don't need a man to pick something up for me, heck I just front squatted 200 lbs, I think I can pick it up myself thank you; however, I would like a man to open the door. I don't need him to pay, I have my own jobs and have been on my own for a long time, but I would like for him too. I don't need him to take me to church, I can drive, but he better be taking his tail too! It's not a need that I have, it's a desire. It's a desire to grow in holiness with another person, to have a running partner along this faith journey towards our final destination. It's a desire for friendships that hold me accountable to the big guy upstairs, not the guy sitting across the room or the table from me. It's a desire for women to flourish in their feminine genius and for the men of God to rise up and lead us.
SO I challenge you today, no matter where you've been, what you've done, how good you are, or how much you've thrown your dignity to the wind, RECLAIM IT! You don't have to earn it , you don't have to buy it back, you don't have to go searching for it, you simply need to identify that it is yours. PROTECT it. Become a man or woman who fights for truth and leads others to the truth. We spend so much time trying to build walls thinking that we are protecting ourselves, but in reality we are really imprisoning oursevles. In protection, we become transparent. Your transparency will create a vulnerability that will encourage others to be vulnerable too and it's in that vulnerability that we can most grow with one another!
Lastly, build holy friendships. Men and women can and should be friends, holy friends; friends that want the other person to become the best version of themselves, friends that want others to be cruising into heaven with them. It's no good for us to be alone, so surround yourself with those who will lift you up.
"The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves. The resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them" --Thomas Merton
--Live Love--
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