To All Women

Women, the world needs us, every part of us. We are gifts to mankind. It needs us at rest with who we are without the performance, requirements, or expectations. It needs us to realize the worth God has given us and the value He’s placed upon us. Those unable to see us for all we are have no idea what they’re missing out on. The shackles of shame might be causing us to be unaware ourselves.

The world needs our beauty, love, and sexuality, all so powerful and made to be delighted in. Our beauty showing the handiwork of our Creator. Our love able to captivate our husbands for eternity, our bodies able to satisfy our husbands all the days of our lives, or equally powerful enough to be used to bring strong men down to their graves. May we use them wisely. We are royalty, daughters of the King. May we dress like it. There’s a reason the world shockingly points out when there’s any indiscretion or lack of propriety among royalty. May we not offer our bodies to anyone who can’t see us and enjoy us completely for all we are under the protective covering of God’s intentions, a man who vows to cherish us, protect us, and provide for us all the days of our lives. If we feel the need to compete before marriage, marriage will not fix that. It only sheds light on it, and a man willing to break his vow with you will have no problem breaking his vows to you. We’re better than that. We are exquisite in our uniqueness, so much more than the bodies we all possess. May we not be guilty of letting such small pieces of us distract others from being able to see us for all we are. May we not seek to steal the spotlight from another woman who also should be wholly seen and loved without comparison. May we all support each other, letting our own light shine instead of trying to diminish the lights of those around us.

The world needs our fearless spirit that can talk to serpents, our discernment that places blame on whom it is due while realizing our part in believing his lies. Any area we act like a victim in cannot produce life. The world needs the strength of our sensitivity to spread compassion in its calloused state. Out of this compassion is the place where miracles happen. It needs our courage that stands at the foot of the cross when the majority of the men around us run. It needs our nurturing nature that brings life to everything we give attention to, called to be mothers of all the living before we ever birthed any children- but what a blessing children are! It needs our insight and forbearance to not cling too tightly to the lives we need to one day let go of if we ever want them to thrive. It needs our queenship to pass on the crown and make room for those we hope to be queens in our sons’ lives just as we want to be given room in our husbands’ lives. It needs the soft, fertile soil of our hearts to plant the Word of God inside of us and our dependence on the Holy Spirit to grow fruit from it. It needs us to drink deeply from His bottomless well and eat His bread offered daily.

The whole world is seeing the devastating results of what happens when we are not seen, rejoiced in, or used fully for who and what we were intended to be. God has given us the free will to parade a lifestyle contrary to and beneath the quality of life He had in mind- naked and unashamed, able to be wholly known and loved for all we are, fitting together like a puzzle that's undeniably seen, able to represent His image together in our totality, and able to multiply life without fear of disease. A sharing in responsibility from men who help us see the lives we create for the blessings they are, able to receive us as the blessings we are.

A woman who’s unloved and unwanted grows hard and bitter. A woman not given her rightful place becomes demanding or grows callous and hides, losing her gentle nature. No good fruit grows from bitterness. Women know the devastating reality of that. It takes a very brave woman to maintain softness despite injustice, growing forth life within her, and sometimes being willing to share that life with another in the hope they can produce a better environment than she can, letting go of the very heart of her she wishes to thrive. The shame a woman must feel who solely bears the destruction of a life she helped produce. May we mourn the loss of all the lives affected by such corruption. May we combat the lies that cause any human to not see the value of life with truth rather than shame, as no good fruit has ever come from shame and no potential ever grown out of irresponsibility.

I know we’re hurting and our sensitivity said to be a weakness. I know the shame we carry from an early age that says anything done like a female is less than our male counterparts. I'm aware that being told to act like a woman but think like a man makes it seem like something is wrong with the way we process things. I’ve worn the straight jacket and bore the burden of responsibilities society and religion have forced upon us which often have more to do with personality, environment, and culture than anything else. I know the weight of the entire universe often rests on our shoulders, always being reminded it was the woman deceived first. The man who failed to speak up knowing the truth and ate as well not acknowledged despite God giving him the command in her absence. I’ve carried the burdens placed upon us to bring life in every area of our homes even when we’re running on empty with little regard to the presence of the men in our lives. The complete lack of respect we give men enabling them to not bear the weight of any responsibility within the home or showing the significant importance in their roles as fathers, husbands, or co-inhabitants.

I know we’ve been told we’re too much, that those who judge unjustly have tried to silence us or those who think that one small part of a letter sent to a church in a culture that worshipped women and usurped the authority of men should pertain to every woman in a church that should extend beyond four walls. I know so many of us have been mistreated, betrayed, and deceived by men who cover the altar of God with tears, but God will not hear them or answer their prayers until they realize they are one with us and love us accordingly. Bullies are always intimidated by the voices of the oppressed. Others might be good men, completely unaware of the injustices that come from women being silenced. Satan always appears as an angel of light, and he hates when we join together in our authority and totality sharing a picture of Christ and His love for the church. He will use anyone above us to bruise our headship. Men who cry out upon the altar of God are passionate men in the church, and a church with unanswered prayers is a dead church. Dead churches can slander prosperous churches all they want, but until they look within and love us as they love themselves, they will never show a picture of Christ who loves the church and gave Himself up for her. Christ who loved us in our darkness, while we were still sinners, who loved us first without our performance or submission. Christ who saw women for all we are and never turned us away despite what onlookers would say. Christ who is the desire of all the nations. He’s still alive. There’s still hope!

May we be the Esthers of our generation, born for such a time as this! May we stop waiting for the scepter to be extended to us first, stop waiting for permission to be the queens God has already crowned us to be! The world needed Mary, the mother of Jesus, it needed Mother Teresa that the whole world acknowledged as a mother despite her lack of a husband or biological children, and it needs the life-giving nature of us as well. The world needs the life that comes from whole women who are walking in the freedom of the Spirit. We have the choice to choose life, so that we and our descendants can live. Women walking in freedom, the life givers who make up over half the population and give life to those within us and all around us, can change the world for the better. May we all be women of valor, clothed in strength and dignity, able to laugh without fear of the future all the days of our lives. May we realize the deception in a world that tries to keep us small and silent, that tells us we need to wear a mask in order to be beautiful or not look sickly. A world that would have us starve ourselves in order to fit the ideal. A world that seeks to diminish our worth, telling us our lives are purely accidental, and tries to get us to abort the very lives we helped create. May we see with full clarity the shame brought upon us seeking to erase the very scars that show we have lived, that devalues our capacity to grow in great depths of wisdom as we age, and reduces the praise that belongs to a woman who fears the Lord. May we choose to live and give life to all who are around us! What a gift we possess. What a gift that we are! May we live lives that reflect that.