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| jadyn noelle photography |
I
had lunch with some people at work the other day that I don't know. When the subject of raising daughters came up, one of the ladies said the funniest line, as she summarized her thoughts on raising her own
daughter. She said, “When my daughter was 9, I said ‘I can’t
do this’; when she was 11 I considered sending her to boarding school; and when
she was 13, I considered going to boarding school!" That's a good summary of a fairly common thought!
Recently in preparation for my talk at a local church on the value of being female, I asked a question on my Facebook page "5 Things" to see what women had to say. I asked the question: One of the values or benefits of being female is _________:
Some answers you gave:
- giving birth and giving life
- we are caretakers yet taken care of
- we are emotional creatures and life would be meaningless without emotion
- having such strong, raw emotions-sometimes it hinders, but mostly it helps me to experience life in the truest sense
- motherhood
- the innate ability to be compassionate
- nursing a child
- we are strong- stronger than we think
I add to that that we are creators, receivers, have power,
are able to nurture, we have an intuition, an inner desire for relationship, we
hold families together, and are able to go deep with the Lord.
Everywhere I go, I hear people say “OH NO” to raising girls
in today’s world. Why? The reasons seem to be the dangers, it’s hard to control
what they do in a culture so immoral, the pressures so strong and the role
models so low. Raising girls is expected to be hard. But I say that’s the wrong
point of view.
Let’s talk for a minute about how females are viewed in our
society. First, there is so much gender confusion in today’s world. Knowing the
value of why God created males and females has always been important, but it's becoming increasingly important. The strengths He gave each are important.
When I say “how
females are viewed in society”, I’m talking about culture in general- the culture we live in- the news, the media,
the movies and books, the music, the culture in schools and on social media, etc. Not necessarily how you are living your life. How our culture portrays females slips in, no matter how protective we try to be, so it’s good to understand and think through these issues with our girls, as is age appropriate. I am generalizing in the broadest sense.
Think of baby girls- they are everything sweet, cuddly and princess-y. Girls are talkers and fun and frilly. As they grow into
toddlers, we talk about how smart they are, what they are learning.
The elementary years are adventurous years, where they try new
things and find new talents- maybe sports, leadership in school clubs, music, drama, art, being smart, enjoying
life. Somewhere toward the older elementary years, the worrisome thoughts creep into girls' minds about looks, girl
drama, mean girls and sometimes the confusing, yet fun subject of liking boys! Many adults look at these
girls as though they are way too young to possibly be worrying about any of these subjects, but
the young girls are definitely feeling the stresses early. Thinking about looks,
popularity, boys and how to deal with drama.
As adults, sometimes we are
afraid of these years and are reactive instead of proactive. We may assume the worst and expect things to
be hard. We may put up with negative behavior in girls because “that’s the way
girls are”. We put on our “YIKES” hat and think we can’t affect our girls in
this stage. I believe that is so untrue!
People
rise to the level of expectation. God never said the teen years have to be a terrible experience. They may have some difficulties and have rough periods, but we don't have to expect the worst and toss up our hands. If
we consistently teach godly principles and have those as our standard, maybe some drama can
be saved. We can concentrate on character at each stage and have that be our
guideline. It certainly doesn't mean that the years will be a breeze, but we can prepare for them way ahead of time. Actually, the young years are the training ground for how teen years will be.
The biggest problems in teen life become – who are my friends, do I
have a boyfriend, and do I look good? The value of being female begins to show
up as “how do I look, and am I desirable to guys?” instead of who they are
inside, what they are gifted with.. what we see. Their view has often changed since childhood.
What’s interesting, in talking with many tweens, they feel
tremendous pressure to grow up too fast. It’s easy to assume they want to, but
when I've asked, almost 100% say they would rather remain young longer, and just enjoy being
a kid. Who knew.
As we grow older, the value that society largely puts on adult women is still in our looks, our youth and our sexiness. Like that’s the
biggest aim we should have. That feeling gets transferred to our kids very
young. The Girls 101 workshops we've done with girls as young as 5th grade prove that they have thoughts of self
loathing about their looks and their size already. Negative thoughts don't necessarily go
away as we get older, we just mask it differently. Some women have gotten
beyond it, and don’t see their value in looks. But the pressure of
perfection and our looks is very prevalent. The Lord helps us through that as
we mature. We can get beyond it.
Even the mean girl stuff- that doesn’t always go away with
age either. Women are either our biggest
hindrance, or our biggest support. There is nothing more powerful than a group
of women who support each other. Women who aren’t
competitive is a beautiful thing. On the other hand, little is as destructive as mean women.
As adults, there are varied expectations of women. Either we are expected to get a degree and make good money and compete with
men, or we are to be the best stay-at-home-super-mom there is, making
everything from organic sources while blogging about it. But we are to be busy
and excel at whatever we do, regardless of what we choose. AND, we are to
stay desirable no matter what happens; stay young, keep our body in shape after
birthing several children, etc. Whew!
Older women- do you feel expected to be available, to
help raise more kids (grandkids), to afford this, work here, volunteer there,
be good moms and grandmas? Maybe it’s finally time to live your dreams, when in
reality you are tired from making everyone else’s happen.
I don’t think all of these negative assumptions society makes about
females, or that we put on ourselves, is how God intended us to be when He designed us. I don’t think He made
us to be difficult and competitive.
I think we misunderstand femininity and expect
too little.
Maybe we are just misusing our strengths!
What should our focus be then? What are the strengths God gave us as
women?
Stay tuned.
