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Should your Women’s Ministry drop the self-esteem talk?
Have you ever felt like women's ministries kind of have the same three topics on repeat? Women are tired of going to church and chanting "I am beautiful" while wearing Proverb 31 shirts and taking selfies in front of a pink backdrop. I get it…as a female minister who is addicted to church history and loves exegetical preaching, the narrative of women's ministry can stand to be a little less Fru-Fru. Yet before you consider deleting the topic of self-esteem and beauty altogether, I implore you- don't do it! I am living proof that good theology does not do away with crippling insecurity. My in-depth understanding of the Imago-Dei (image…
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Women’s Wars and Personal Value
I felt worthless as a teacher. In my first semester of teaching English as a Second Language, I discovered one day that all my students had made D’s and F’s on their first lab assignment. My stomach tightened into a knot and I considered stepping down mid-semester to allow someone else to take over my class. Later that day, I discovered that I had misunderstood the grading chart and that every single one of my students had made either A’s or B’s on their lab assignment. Since most classes have a very small portion of A’s and B’s on their final grades, I felt that I had done a pretty…
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Five things every child needs (Part 1 of 5)
Hannah had just turned 16 and couldn’t wait to drive her bright, new, red, shiny sports car. Even though she didn’t have her license and had not taken her driver’s education class, her parents gave her the keys and turned her loose to drive. This sounds like a terribly bad idea, right? To drive a car safely we are required to take a course, practice, take a test and then we are given a license to drive. To teach school, to scuba dive, to operate machinery, to fly a plane, to practice medicine, a person has to be taught, and given certifications and licenses. However, when it comes to having…
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Encourage mentees while bursting the self esteem bubble
The blockbuster television show and singing competition American Idol interviewed one of the female contestants that managed to secure a coveted place as a top twelve finalist. “It’s really true,” the seventeen-year-old contestant bubbled, “You really can be anything you want to be if you believe in yourself and want it badly enough.” Never mind that thousands of contestants were turned away from the show even though they believed in themselves and wanted it badly. The ubiquitous promise rang hollow for them as they watched their dreams crash. Many young women find that roadblocks or limitations of one sort or another prevent them from achieving their optimistic goals. Many are…
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The Commencement Address I’ll Never Get to Give
Graduations mean commencement addresses. Most of which are eminently forgettable, containing feel-good charges to go do great stuff and change the world. But in my experience, they’re always given by men, who are some kind of celebrity. I am neither. But I have a few thoughts on practical life lessons that newly-minted graduates might use. “Hey graduates, congratulations. You made it to the cap-and-gown stage. Not without a lot of help and prodding and prayers and frustration from your parents though, right? Thank them. There’s not a single thing you are or do or have that they didn’t have a part in. Thank them again. “Speaking of thanking, one of…
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Selfie-Inflicted Wounds
The selfie: that well-orchestrated, yet "accidental" picture of yourself as you just happened to be holding your camera up at the right angle to get a great shot of yourself and so you're posting it. Taken at the right angle it can apparently even make your eyes look bigger, your cheekbones more defined, and your overall appearance just awesome. For some, the number of likes and comments a selfie garners can mean everything. It's a quantifiable number on popularity. Back in the "olden days," you might wonder how many friends you had. Now you can know down to the exact number, including how often they interact with you, "like" you,…
