International Women's Day

Jesus protected women. 

Empowered women.

Honored women publicly.

Released the voice of women.

Confided in women.

Was funded by women.

Celebrated women by name.

Learned from women.

Respected women.

And spoke of women as examples to follow.

Apparently today is International Women's Day.  I didn't know.  I'm honestly not one to care usually.  I am not a woman that believes we need to be equal in every way to our male counterparts.  Some feminist just gasped somewhere and doesn't know why!  I believe men and women were made vastly different and with vastly different goals to be accomplished.  I don't want to be "equal" to a man.  I don't even need to be "equal" to the other women around me.  I'm who God created ME to be.  No one else.

That all said, I DO want to be heard.  In that the Lord gave me a voice and unique thoughts and feelings and ideas, I believe I should be given equal opportunity to voice those.

But, I realized only this week something interesting.  I get afraid to voice my opinion to men.  I can tell women all day long what I'm thinking, but when it comes to telling a man what I'm thinking, especially one in some sort of authority over me, I cower.

And it took sitting with a sweet friend this week and letting a lot of emotions fall out of me in a jumble to understand this!  So glad she took some time with me to let me get all emotional (we had to go in search of tissues even!).

I grew up in church.  I grew up in a myriad of different religions actually due to the many private schools I attended in different states.  I attended 1 Catholic school, was homeschooled 1 year by my Nazarene grandma, 1 Church of God Holiness school (think MORE strict than Baptist!) and 3 different Baptist schools, all while being raised Nazarene and then going to a Pentacostal church's youth group in high school!  But, the one thing that was universal was that men did the talking and women did the listening.  And, I hated that. 😄

The Nazarene churches do recognize women ministers and the Pentacostal church, as well.  And I had some great women voices speaking to me during those times.  BUT, as I sat with my friend this week, I realized that the voices that were still sounding so loudly in my heart were the negative ones:

The teachers that told me that women have no business speaking in church;

The youth pastor that asked me to step down immediately because I stood up to him;

The church elders that told me I was a bully because I spoke up in board meetings and didn't allow them to speak down to me;

The music teacher who told me to mouth the words and never let me sing again.  (Now to be fair, I'm NO singer, but to a 5th grader, it would have been kinder to work with me.)

So when I saw the little blurb at the beginning of this now rather long blog, I smiled.

This woman, created in God's image, was created with a voice.  I was given life and a purpose.  I have had the privilege of owning my own store, preaching at a few churches, leading a retirement home in years of Sunday services, leading youth groups and women's bible studies, loving and pouring into the lives of my nephews and my friends and I have the honor of loving and serving the Lord.

Today I think I will celebrate my uniqueness.  And I will remember that the voices that come behind me, whether it be other women I will come across, young girls or even just my sweet nephews I have the honor of "aunting", need me to be strong.  They need me to stand up, with respect and tenacity, and be heard.  The Lord needs me to use the voice He gave me for such a time as this.  And I intend to...no matter what.