Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill what He has spoken to her! Mother’s Day is right around the corner and I found myself very blessed this week by an amazing group of women. Over multiple occasions I was empowered, supported and loved from a variety of different women. The circumstances around each incident was radically different, but the one thing that all of those moments had in common was a desire from each of those women to love and support me. Interestingly enough they are all mothers and some of them grandmothers. Like Elizabeth speaking to Mary in the scripture above, these women spoke into my life love and a great deal of joy. There is a natural instinct in women to love. We were created with the purpose of supporting and loving our families. What was beautiful and amazing to me this week was to see all of these different women step in and love on me, and only one was family. Three of these women I met for the first time this week. There was something so lovely in these experiences. It is truly beautiful when we as people step in to each others lives to strengthen one another. I got that in spades this week. I didn’t even realize how much I needed it until I was feeling all that support. There is this idea in our society that women can be catty or bitchy, and don’t give me wrong we can be, but that is not who we are at heart. We were made for something so much more. We were made to love. We were made to empower and strengthen. Society rises or falls on the backs of amazing mothers and daughters and sisters and girlfriends and wives and aunts and so on. I came across a quote today that said “behind every successful woman is a tribe of women.” I don’t know who originally said it, but I believe it to be true. Let me tell you a little about some women in my tribe.  The most influential woman in my life has been my mother. That is not surprising because that is the case for most of us. For me, my mother is also my best friend. I’ve told her before and she doesn’t really believe me, but it’s true, she is the person who taught me what love is and showed me the heart of God. The way she did this was by living it out every single day. I don’t know another person who has sacrificed so much for the people in their life. She would give up anything for her family. Every step of my life I have had her supporting me. She is not perfect, she is riddled with flaws, but who isn’t. She is so sincere and generous and has a strength in her that she isn’t even aware of. Despite all of her anxieties and her fears, she was able to build in me an understanding of my worth and a sense of hope and decency. She’s always telling me how smart and capable and talented I am. She told me again this week! She knows how to empower others and I hope that when she reads this she will feel empowered as well.
She’s not the only amazing woman to come into my life, I had this grandmother who we all called our prayer warrior. She was down on her knees every single morning, and I mean physically down on her knees, and prayed for her family, her friends and the world. She was very faithful and very strong willed and she knew how to love and be loved by God. One of the things I found most inspiring in my grandmother was she was a woman who knew herself well. Again, a woman with many flaws, but she was confident in who she was. I see that confidence passed on to my sisters. Both of them had that same type of light like my grandmother, this inner strength and determination that I’ve always been amazed of, and admittedly a little envious of. She was another woman who knew how to build up her family and friends. I have been lucky to have some astonishing family and friends come into my life, and sometimes they also go out, but while we were in each others lives they never failed to be there for me. My sister Kim always encouraged me to stand strong. My sister Sheril has only ever wanted to see me happy. My nieces, more like little sisters to me, each one bring life and trouble (sometimes good and sometimes bad) into my life. The numerous friends who laughed and cried and rabble roused with me, many years may have gone by, but their words and actions still linger, influencing me to this day. Over the last few year‘s God has been building a community around me and it continues to grow with beautifully authentic women. I have seen God‘s love in each and everyone of them and they remind of my value and my purpose. Our lives are filled with amazing people who come in and build us up. Our lives are also filled with those people who need to be strengthened and built up. I look around at the people in my life and I see so many who need the kind of love and support I experienced this week and that I have been blessed to experience in my life. I pray that I can step into these lives and be who God designed me to be. Our lives intertwine and mingle and we leave an imprint and I just want to make sure that my imprint is eternal for everyone who crosses my path. I want to take the strength, the grace and the love of all those dazzling women and let the light shine out. This Mother’s Day, honor those amazing women in your life and pay it forward by empowering all those God brings onto your path.
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If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. This past weekend I got to spend time with a bunch of very cool ladies at a conference. We laughed, cried, learned, and it was all for the purpose of growing deeper in relationship with God and each other. We were designed for community. God intends for us to influence one another. God gave each of us strengths that will allow us to help others who are weak or in need. He’s given us talents that we may inspire one another. He has given us need to connect with others so we may experience a sense of love and community.
It has come to my attention that I relate better to people who are either much older or much younger than me. I don’t really understand the how, but I do understand some of the why. I have found that to those who are younger I can bring a bit of my wisdom and experience and the tiniest bit of maturity that I have into the relationship. Regarding my connection with older folks, I am somebody they can take care of and invest their wisdom in while getting to learn from me as I go deeper with God. They also see potential in me so they want to build me up. I have very few close friends my age. I don’t relate to that age for some reason. But, if I needed too then God would have designed me that way. The point is that I belong to those who God has brought into my life and they to me. We are responsible and accountable to one another. I am not suggesting that in any way, shape or form that people are not responsible for their own actions, but we are responsible for fulfilling our purpose in God’s will which is to connect with His people, His children. We are all a part of this walk with God, even if not everyone on this big blue rock believes. In order to see real change we have to be able to share ourselves with others. We were designed, it is in our DNA to be connected to other children of God. They are all around you, and they are all struggling with something. Maybe you are supposed to step in to some of those lives, cross your path with them and bring your strengths and even your weaknesses into the relationship. Maybe they will build you up, maybe you will build them up, but I do know that if God brings someone into your life whether they are friends, family, acquaintances or some random person in the grocery line...it is for a purpose, it is for His purpose and His perfect will. How will you respond? How will you love them? How will you be Jesus in their life? And are you willing and able to let them step into your life and be Jesus for you? Talk to God today about everybody that is currently in your life and those who are coming. Pray for them, talk to God about them, imagine your walk with them and embrace what He has for you both in these amazing relationships. |
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