Feminine Dignity

Below is a talk that I wrote this past week and am going to give at event for high school girls at a local church tonight. My friend is the youth minister at this church and called me in bind since the speaker she was supposed to have backed out due to a family emergency. I wasn't sure if I would be able to pull something together so quickly, but think it ended up turning out pretty well. It's amazing how God gives you the words to write..... Let me know what you think.

Here's the talk:

How many of you would swoon, grow weak in the knees, and maybe even faint is someone like Justin Bieber, Joe Mauer, or Patrick Dempsey walked into this room right now and told you that you are beautiful? I know I would. I’m sure that I would be so completely surprised that all I could do would be to stare and wonder, “Wow, did that really just happen?” Now, how many of you long for the fairy tale type story, where Prince Charming rides in on his white horse, sweeps you off your feet, and you both live happily ever after? I know it might sound kind of funny, but even as a 24 year old woman, I do too. In fact, I believe that we all long for the perfect man to come, tell us how beautiful we are, and love us forever. We long for this man to fill a deep longing for love and companionship that we all possess. While the story sounds wonderful and we all get excited at the mere thought of it coming true, we all start to “beat ourselves up” when it doesn’t. In fact, we get so down on ourselves that we immediately think that we’re not good enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not worthy of love. Why is that? We’re all smart women…we all believe in God. We have the great and true lover of our souls to back us up, hold us tight, and love us forever…and yet….we still let the world tell us we’re not good enough. Think just a second on why you think that is….

In one of my all-time favorite books, Captivating, (which you should all read, by the way) the authors say that, "A woman's struggle with her sense of worth points to something glorious she was designed to be. The great emptiness we feel points to the great place we were created for.” To me this reinforces the point that only God can fill the great emptiness that we can all feel at times. God is the true lover of our souls and is already the best there is. Why would we want anything different? In the Bible, God gives us one of the best love stories of all time. Through the book Song of Songs He writes, “You are all-beautiful, my beloved and there is no blemish in you.” I’m going to read it again…a little bit more slowly…and as I do, let it really sink in. “You are all-beautiful, my beloved and there is no blemish in you.” Ladies, the all-powerful, all-loving God who created Heaven and Earth not only loves us but he sees us as all beautiful. In His eyes we are perfect. How amazing is that? Think about it…the God who created the trees, the birds, the air, the sky….He thinks we’re all perfect and already loves us deeper and to a greater extent then we’ll ever be able to comprehend. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty amazing. Now, what can we do to start really knowing and believing that?

I know what you might be thinking right now…. “Here comes the part where she talks about not believing the lies the media tells us…the images we see in magazines, the models portrayed on TV…blah blah blah.” While these points are all very true, that’s now what I’m going to talk about today because I feel like you already know it. You’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it twice…probably a million times. Rather than just knowing that we need to not believe in these things, we need to pray to God daily and ask Him to reveal His love to us, to help us recognize the great beauty and love that we were all made for. You have to remember…in God’s eyes we are like royalty. Yes…royalty. If God is the king of the universe that means that we are his princesses. We are the princesses that He wants to send out on a great mission, to help spread His love to the world. In Song of Songs 7:2, God says, “How beautiful are your feet in sandals, oh Prince’s daughter.” God longs for us to realize this…that He sees every part of us as beautiful…in order that we might show our love and radiant beauty to His kingdom.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I know that this is all much easier said than done. It all sounds fine and dandy until we are actually faced with having to get out in the world and live it. The minute we get on the natural “God high” and feel like everything is going to really work out is the time that the king of darkness, the devil himself, comes to try to feed us all of the world’s lies again. The devil knocks us down and tries to make us feel like we are worthless. It is at this point that I feel it is important to incorporate another quote from Captivating. The authors note that, “You really won't understand your life as a woman until you understand this: You are passionately loved by the God of the universe. You are passionately hated by his enemy.” (Think of how strong of a word ‘passionately’ is and everything that we so often associate with it). While I know this line does sound a little bit scary, there also comes some good news. Ladies…we are a force to be reckoned with. We are so beautiful, perfect, and ultimately powerful in the eyes of our Heavenly Father that the devil is scared of us. The prince of darkness is scared….of us. So…hold your heads up high ladies and be proud. Our beauty is some pretty powerful stuff.

Perhaps one of the greatest examples of examples of love and what it means to be a great woman of dignity is Mother Teresa. She was all about living simply and showing love to every person no matter what the circumstance. In her book A Simple Path she says, “We have all been created for greater things-to love and to be loved. Love is love-to love a person without any conditions, without any expectations. Works of love are works of peace and purity. Works of love are always a means of becoming closer to God, so the more we help each other, the more we really love God better by loving each other. Jesus very clearly said, ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ Love in action is what gives us grace. We pray and, if we are able to love with a whole heart, then we will see the need… Those who are unwanted, unloved, and uncared for become just a throwaway of society-that’s why we must really make everybody feel wanted.”

Within this quote, I feel like Mother Teresa is reinforcing God’s mission for us: to use our beauty and power as women to go out and change the world one person at a time. God gave us a special mission, ladies. He created us, specifically as women to share His love with the world. How can we truly do that if we love only those who love us? God calls us to go deeper, to look beyond our own personal wants, feelings, and comfort zones and use our beauty and power to serve those that may be the hardest to show love to. The greatest part? …He is there to back us up all the way. Our Father, the king of Heaven and Earth, is there to help us, His all-beautiful princesses, through all of life’s demands.

In closing, I really want to challenge all of you to take some time to not only slow down and look at all the beauty God has surrounded us with, but also to take the time to slow and really let the fact that God created us all as all-beautiful sink it. Go for a walk with a friend, spend some out in nature, spend an hour in adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament….whatever it takes. God is ready to send us all on a wonderful mission. In fact, in Song of Songs 2:13 He actually says, “Arise my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!”