And was made woman…joy!
Day 12 #pilgrimagejoy
In honor of International Women’s Day- March 8. I share joy in being a woman. I share below a tribute to women I wrote in my book, Becoming Who I am. I love being a woman and pray we all value what that means more and more every single day.
We believe in our God Our Mother-Father God Our refuge Our stronghold, Our rock We honor our elders leaning on the lives of our sisters in Christ, We lean on Sarah, Mary, Esther, Naomi, Ruth; We lean on our enslaved foremothers, on Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Queen Nanny of the Maroons; We learn from them, we carry their wisdom on our shoulders and we pass their powerful legacy onto our daughters in Christ. We support, encourage, embrace, raise up, build up, hold up our sons, our men Let me say that again! We support, encourage, embrace, raise up, build up, hold up our sons, our men. For we know that the work of Moses, Paul, Jesus, Martin, Malcolm, Marcus and many others, Have been strengthened by the power and presence of women. Remember we were “Last at the cross, first at the tomb.” We embrace, believe in and nurture our children, our youth. We are mothers, blood mothers, other mothers; step mothers, adoptive mothers; Aunties, grandmas, great grandmas, big sisters; We love, encourage and support our children for haven’t you heard? “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, praise has been perfected!” We know we are sinners We forgive ourselves We forgive ourselves We forgive others We let go and we let God. We believein God’s justice We believe in God’sjustice We believe in God’s justice. Our lips shout for joy when we sing praises to the Lord! We sing We laugh We drink tea! We love our food! We weep, we break our hearts, we hug, we hope, we heal. We dance We sway our hips We walk in that certain kind of way! With a little sass, a little shimmer! We strut with God’s confidence running up our spines! We are beautiful! We are beautiful! We are beautiful! When we are afraid, when we are worried, when we are faced with life’s valleys; When the waters have come up to our necks and we sink deep in the mire, where there is no foothold… We look to the young teenaged girl over 2 thousand years ago, who was visited by an Angel and told that she would be a mother to a son who would be called the Christ; we look to this young mother who with a deep and abiding faith, simply said in response to this news, “be it unto me according to thy word” Thy will be done! And we pray, yes, we pray! We pray with a vengeance; we become prayer warriors. We pray with a boldness because we know that if we “Ask it will be given, if we search we will find and if we knock, the door will be opened!” For with God nothing is impossible! For with God nothing is impossible! We affirm the Holy Spirit in our lives guiding our every move, our every decision, our every waking moment, we give our lives over to Him. Praise be to God, Praise be to God, Praise be to God! Lord we thank you for women, we thank you for their lives, we thank you their strength and their perseverance. We ask God’s blessings on our continued journey as women so that we may be renewed spirits and live with a newness and sweetness of life.
