Women are awesome and amazing,
Or terrible and hurtful.
Some have forgotten high school ended eons ago, and are still hanging on to the same prejudices, criticisms, pettiness, jealously and spiteful talk that once littered the halls.
Instead of rejoicing with their sisters, they pick them apart.
I remember the kind, beehive-haired church ladies who loved on me and encouraged me as a young girl, though I don’t recall any specifics. But I do remember every word of dour “Mrs.Sour,” who said my mother ought to cut my long hair because it was stringy. Born with spaghetti-straight hair, I’m sure the fine strands hung limp and languid in the West Texas heat.
Isn’t it funny the negatives we carry with us even more than thirty years later?
Until that day I never consciously gave my hair a thought. My hair was my hair. But from that point on, I began to notice the girls with thick curly hair and started to think of my hair as less than desirable.
That’s when dissatisfaction set in…
Comparison lurks as the great joy killer.
Criticism delivers the death blow.
Some of you grew up with gals who loved and nurtured you, and some of you languished with women who tore you down and made you think you could never be good enough. All of us have been hurt by steely-calculating, or airily-thoughtless women.
And some wounds go so deep the scars have built a wall around your heart.
It’s no wonder we sometimes hold our fears, our hurts, and especially our dreams close to our breast.
Sharing with no one.
Loose tongues fan a painful flame.
Once you’ve been burned, trust is hard to extend.
Something special knits female friends, women with common life stories, or nothing in common except a love of God and a desire to be the best christian woman and friend they can be.
And when I use my 10,000 daily words, she smiles and nods and answers in kind. And my husband doesn’t feel overloaded with his meager 1000 daily words spoken.
Even if your life is not great right now, serving goes a long way toward healing. Look for the single mom who is drowning, or the young mom overwhelmed with children. Seek out the empty nester struggling with the flight of her last chickie. or the divorcee who is adrift. Or the newly widowed. Or the lonely long-time widowed or the one whose husband slips down a long road of illness.
Someone, somewhere yearns for you to reach out and serve them. Or you may feel overwhelmed and fall into a season to be served.
So step up and step out
This may be your time to make a difference in the life of another.
Let’s determine to be a prayerful and nurturing band of sisters,
Not a flock of old crows.
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I Thessalonians 5:10-12 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. [ Final Instructions ] Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you.
-Build your sisterhood.
-Reach out to others around you and begin with something as simple as celebrating birthdays together.