The value of women

Have you ever had a brief moment where you saw or heard something in passing that disturbed you and you just kept thinking about it? I was watching tv the other day and an ad came on for a new movie coming out called the dictator. It is not a movie I would go to see anyway since It's not my kind of humour and i'm not a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen, but the ad got my attention. It was a lady giving birth and this 'dictator' was helping her, the baby was born and he said i'm sorry it's a girl where's the trash can, the American family were saying no that's what we wanted and i'm sure it was supposed to funny in some dark sort of way as it's a spoof kind of movie from what I can tell, but those few seconds on my tv screen made me want to cry!!!!

In Australia we take it for granted that women are equal citizens, who can access education, have careers, and are valued as human beings, but in so much of the world that is just not the case. "It's a girl where's the trash can" is the mentality that sees babies aborted or abandoned because they are girls, that sees honor killings, that sees genital mutilations, that sees women married off as young girls then left in desperation when their young bodies can't handle childbirth and they end up with fistulas. That throw away line in a movie ad summed up the lack of value that is placed on so many precious women on this Earth and it breaks my heart!!

At sisterhood yesterday at my church the lady speaking was one of the pastors who went over to Kiev for the recent colour women's conference. A gathering of that sort that values women is a very new thing in that region of the world and women having value is a message that they have not heard or grown up with. She spoke of meeting orphans who were abandoned because they were girls, of meeting rescued victims of human trafficking ( a trade that flourishes on the objectification and devaluing of women so that they can be the sexual property of men), and of how these lives have been transformed through Jesus, through the prayers of His followers opening doors in those regions, through the love and concern of His people reaching out and I was brought to tears again but this time because of people seeing the value of women. I am so grateful that I am part of a sisterhood of women that want to share that message of value, dignity and Christ's love, not just the sisterhood at my church, but a global sisterhood of Christian women bringing a revolution of peace, light and love, caring for orphans, widows, the oppressed and being a voice for those who would otherwise end up in that trash can.

I wanted to share some things out of the amazing prayer journal we were given as a gift at colour conference earlier this year. This is a snippet of what Bobbie Houston wrote in the front "this simple book and visual expression seeks to position our beloved global sisters before us.. it captures a tiny glimpse of their beauty, potential and value. Many of these precious women face cultural, social and political challenge and many are assailed by forces that need to incite concern and outrage. Like us they have hopes and dreams for their children and families"..... women just like us that need to know that God sees them and loves them, that they have value and beauty!! Throughout the journal as prayer needs for all the regions of the world are presented there are photos of women from all sorts of places and all walks of life and I wanted to share a few:

 

Aren't they all so different and yet all so beautiful!! We are our sisters keepers, so let's not be silent about the value of women, let's not laugh at what is actually a tragedy, let's instead embrace God's message of love and value to all people on the Earth and in the words of Bobbie Houston "believe that prayer will displace darkness, open the heavens and cause His love to prevail." Let's use what's in our hand to "make a difference, raise awareness, stand in the gap and find solution for those who have no voice or those who need a helping hand." Because every woman on this Earth is important to God!!!

I am a mummy!!

Yesterday was mother's day which was very fitting as it has only been in the last couple of weeks that I have finally found peace in my job as a mum. I have to admit that motherhood has been one of my greatest challenges and has taken me to the edge of myself many times. The clincher was a Thursday morning a couple of weeks ago when the morning was pure chaos, no-one would co-operate getting out the door on time, the house looked like a cyclone went through it and I felt like a complete and utter failure as a mother. The thought went through my head that morning 'if I can't even be a mum then i'm no good for anything, these kids are better off without me I should just go drive off a cliff'. Needless to say I was not in a good head space and felt like dark clouds were engulfing me!!! I knew I was on thin ice and scared myself so I made a decision that changed everything and decided I needed to be where other Christian women could help me and despite running late I went to sisterhood at my church.

That morning was a divine appointment because the message that morning was by a psychologist all about our thought lives and amongst the many things he said that impacted me were his comments that he sees a lot of women with postnatal depression and something they all have in common is checklists in their heads of how everything should be and I gasped, cause that describes me and I always just thought it was normal but realised it was my own insane expectations that were crushing me!!! I went from having 1 child, to having 3 children all within 14 months which was quite a whirlwind and I never adjusted my expectations from when I had 1 child. I was getting myself so frustrated because things were just never as they 'should be' in the perfect world I pictured in my head, without grasping the reality that things would never be the same again!! Of course there is more mess, of course there is more to do and more to remember and i'm more tired, because there are more children, it doesn't make me a failure, it's simple maths and I just hadn't grasped it. I realised that morning that my mental checklists had to go before I really lost the plot. If I leave the house in the morning and the beds aren't made will the world end?? If my folding is days behind and I choose to do puzzles with the girls instead what would please my kids and my God more, that I invested time in my precious little treasures or that my chores were up to date?

After the message that Thursday morning I burst into tears with 2 amazing women from my church and ended up going back to the house of 1 of them where the 3 of us and our kiddies had lunch. I sat there with these women who also both have 3 children each and realised that they 'get it' about what's important and about the value of people over perfection. Her house was a mess and she invited us over anyway, and I didn't care at all about her house, I loved that she invited me and valued time with me and that had an eternal impact on me that day!!! And so I am on a new journey in my thought life and in my mothering. I tested that out last Friday when I invited some women over for a mother's day morning tea. I cooked yummy treats and decorated the room, but ran out of time to clean the house and decided it didn't matter and didn't stress about it. The ladies came, had a lovely time, they loved the decorations and food and I don't think anyone even noticed I hadn't cleaned the toilet cause they felt blessed to be invited, besides the kids squashed cupcakes on the floor and I had to vacuum afterwards anyway so it would've been a waste of energy to do it beforehand.

And so I have engaged in warfare in my mind, to fill it with God's expectations and valuing of me and not my own perfectionist expectations! It has changed my perspective to actually enjoy motherhood not just to endure it. My life is crazy, full of mess, noise, poop, chaos, but it is so beautiful, to watch my little ones learn new things about the world around them and want to play and dance with mummy, to watch my boy settling into high school, making friends and feeling so proud of how far he's come. To see how excited my girls were on mother's day to give presents and kisses to mummy just melted my heart. I don't want to miss the beauty in my own life because I have let darkness fill my head, when my kids are grown I want their memories to be of a mummy that was kind, of a mummy who spent time with them and made them feel valued, not of a mummy who was stressed and yelling all the time cause nothing ever went to plan! And so I am going to enjoy being a mummy, chaos and all, and I will happily have you over for coffee and cake just try not to trip over the toys on the floor!!

 The beautiful family I am blessed with :-)

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog, I am back in blogging land and very excited about it!! I had to create a completely new email address, profile and blog because of the issues I was having with blogger but here I am ready to start a new blogging chapter about my crazy, beautiful life as a mum and passionate follower of Jesus. This is just a quick intro post for now, I will start up properly later in the week. Nice to see you here :-)