Not Just Decoration: Ramblings on Defining “Womanhood”

Article

When my eldest son was three he started asking an indecent number of “why?” and “what is it?” questions about the world. Coming up with answers was sometimes challenging; no one can draw attention to the folly and illogical nature of the adult world like a child. And so it was that we began distinguishing those things that had a clear purpose (the “why” questions we answered) from those things that were “just decoration” (ones we couldn’t quite figure out the point of).

I am afraid that modern Western society has subconsciously relegated the female figure to “just decoration”; it appears set on divorcing the appearance of my body from its point– it’s use. And I believe this has had a tragic effect on society’s definition of “womanhood.”
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We Must Fail To Succeed

Quotes and Reflections

We each fill many roles. There can be a lot of pressure to “get it right” in every aspect of life. The pressure can build to succeed in any role – student, wife, mother, co-worker, sister, friend, daughter. Sometimes it builds up in many places simultaneously and can be crippling. But, so long as we continue looking to the Lord and striving towards the long term goal of growing in love towards a heavenly life, “failure” is a useful necessity. For our Easter Sunday church service at New Church Westville that was the point of the sermon, which you can listen to here. In some ways even Jesus had to “fail” to accomplish His long term success. When we focus on moving forward and following the Lord failure helps us to grow in ways we never could otherwise and ultimately reach our heavenly goal.

“The fact that those who are being reformed are brought into a state of not knowing any truth, that is, into a state of desolation, insomuch that they experience grief and despair, and that at this point for the first time they receive comfort and help from the Lord, is something that is not known at the present day for the reason that few are being reformed. Those who are such that they are able to be reformed are brought into this state, if not during this life then in the next…. Continue reading We Must Fail To Succeed →

Who’s The Boss?

Article

Decisions, decisions. Don’t they plague us? And we cannot, in all conscience,
take every decision to the Lord. He has gifted us with the ‘as of self’, has empowered us with rationality, and has given women, in particular, wonderfully sensitive intuition. Our antennae are out, ready for action.

For the main part we can cope with the more basic needs that Abraham Maslow, humanistic psychologist, perceived in our psyche. He reasoned that human beings have a hierarchy of needs, and that as these become more sophisticated and inner directed, they shift from survival tactics to deeper psychological drives. Unless we are particularly unfortunate we can cope with hunger, thirst and safety. Most of us satisfy our ‘belonging’ needs and are able to esteem ourselves on the road to self-actualization. We can achieve our potential if we work hard and are given opportunities in life.
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Beauty

Article

BEAUTY…a word we throw around daily in our lives but what does this word really mean? The dictionary defines beauty as “a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight.” Should beauty only be what we see with the naked eye?

Personally beauty has to be more than how a person looks on the outside; the shape of their face, make-up or piercing, the size of your clothes etc. To me, beauty has to be how you carry yourself, love yourself and treat others who you approve or don’t approve off. Beauty is the way you show compassion and empathy to a stranger you don’t know.
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