Hey, Girl

I'm a woman.  Hopefully, that's obvious, although sometimes I wonder.  Every time Kiki sees this picture on the ads on Facebook, she points at it, and says, "MAMA!"  It's a small picture, but I'm pretty sure it's a man and I'm starting to wonder if I need to work on changing up my look a little.  Maybe something a little more feminine.

Picture taken from Facebook Ad 

Now, being a woman is usually something I'm proud of.  We really are quite amazing creatures.  I'm not trying to toot our own horn or anything, but really, we are.  We have the ability to grow little people in our bellies and keep them alive with food that our body makes.  We have an inner strength that can get us through the toughest of situations.  Most of us were born with a level of nurturing that can't be rivaled.  And what about that woman's intuition?  It's usually pretty spot on!  We are multi-taskers to boot.  I don't know a man that can make a sandwich, talk on the phone, and play Candyland, all at the same time.  But that's child's play for a woman.  We are beautiful and complicated beings.  I read somewhere, that to understand a women's mind, just imagine an internet browser with 3,000 tabs open all at the same time, all the time.  I couldn't put it better myself.

On the flip side, I can't get over how hard we can be on ourselves and each other.  No one has ever been meaner to me, than me.  I'm the first to contradict a compliment I might have been given.  In my mind, I'm never good enough and I have to really work not to compare myself to anyone and everyone.  I don't think I'm in the minority here, either.  I feel like women, in general, can't seem to just accept themselves, their bodies, their places in life, etc.

The way women treat each other is often times ridiculous!  Just watch any episode of the Real Housewives of Anywhere to see that.  There's so much bickering and cattiness when you get a group of women together, it's nuts.  Instead of finding and enjoying the things we have in common, we often concentrate on our differences, and consider those differences negative.  Why do differences have to be things that separate us?

There's a group that I belong to on Facebook that's for moms to unite and ask questions.  It's really a great group, but I've never seen so many differing opinions in my life.  It's so interesting to read some of the threads.  Some think you can't immunize and if you do, you are horrible.  Others think those that don't immunize are morons and hippies.  Most think that breastfeeding is the only way to go, and if you don't, they imply that you aren't as good of a mom.   I guess, I wish we could all just get along.  Just be nice to one another; celebrate each other, realizing there's more than one way to skin a cat.

If a girl at the pool looks amazing in a swimsuit, instead of being jealous, I should tell her she looks great!  She might just have lost tons of weight and is proud of her new body.  Or she just might be genetically blessed, and if that's the case, that's good, too.

If a mom seems to have it all together, maybe instead of being snarky and talking about her behind her back, I could acknowledge her and maybe ask for advice.

There's always going to be someone brighter, more beautiful, more talented, richer, with children that behave better, and can seem to keep their house cleaner, so I guess we should just accept that, and move on.  Imagine if we, instead of spending the time we do picking each other apart, tried building each other up--creating a a culture of love and acceptance.  We could be happy for each other's successes and not consider them blows to our own self esteem.  Wouldn't that be amazing?!

You'll have to forgive my me for my rambling.  I struggle with all of these things, so I hope I don't sound like I think I have it all figured out...farthest thing from the truth.  I just yearn for a day when women could unite.  I can't even fathom what we could accomplish.

So anyway, I'm going to strive to be more deliberate at reaching out to women in my community, church, etc.  I will try my best to let other women know how great I think they are and acknowledge their accomplishments.  When I see things about another woman that may give me a twinge of jealousy, I'm going to pray that the Lord turns that jealousy into admiration and joy for them.

Let's all be friends!  Are you in?