Weekend Reading {vol. 107}

Looking for a place to stand: When I say feminism @ Mashena

And what I mean now when I say feminist is that I am for women having a place in this world outside of being a wife and a mother (but that women who are wives and mothers should totally feel free to love and revel in that! It's still high on my "what I want to be" list).

I am for women knowing that "submit to each other" in relationships doesn't mean "be quiet and try not to cause problems because he is the leader."

I am for critiquing the beauty standards that women are placed under and rejecting the controlling, patriarchal natures of our the anxiety that plagues women as we fret and obsess over things only seen by the eye.

I am for lamenting the violence that is done to women as a result of the lies our cultures and religions and governments spout about our place and our personalities and our passions.

I am for critiquing the ways that the world minimizes the imago dei inside of my body and mind and spirit simply because I am labeled "female."

I am for paying attention to Shiprah and Puah, Rizpah, Jehosheba, and the many other names of women in the Bible and for naming it a travesty that those names are not as familiar on our lips as the male names that join them in Scripture.

Letting Go @ The Incorrigible Gingers

I am far from mastering holding them loosely, letting them go, and giving it up to God, but that's alright considering that I will have many many more chances to practice. And fail. And practice some more.

We want to control our kids. Their sleep, their behavior, their mortifying public tantrums. But we absolutely cannot, and I'm convinced the fast majority of our culture's "mom guilt" comes from trying to control these little humans, and utterly failing. Because they are people. Not commodities. Not dolls. Human beings with minds of their own--and don't we want to cultivate that?

How to Begin Forgiving Our Parents: Becoming Human @ A Holy Experience

Look across now at whatever terrain separates you from your father, your mother, your mother-in-law, your stepfather, even your grandparent. Is it possible that someone is there on the other side of the road, someone like you, stripped, knocked out, unable even to ask for help? Might that person be wounded also?

How many of our parents intended the harm they caused? How many acted in ignorance and are ignorant still? How many are stuck in their woundedness, unable to see, to move?

This is what we’re doing now. We are training our spirits in compassion.