My passion is to make women feel lovely… truly lovely from
the inside out. It’s not some conjured marketing ploy, it’s the very core of my being. The raising up of strong women is so critically necessary. Lately, however,
it seems presumptuous. How can I inspire
loveliness when so many are filled to the brim with fear? Friends not sleeping
until their police husbands return safely home.
Friends with children receiving hate because of their parent’s choice of
candidate. A world posting, sharing, spewing
fear and hate on a daily basis. Fresh anxieties cropping. Fear and hate stacking, compounding.
It’s overwhelming and when I feel overwhelmed, I pray. So I sit each morning, before the sun rises and
I pray for myself, then moving outward, upward I pray for my family, my
friends, my neighbors, my town, my state, my nation, then the world. I have a big
God, so I pray big prayers and he does extraordinary things. But then I rise
and keep silent. God doesn’t need my help, but telling myself and my family
to keep quiet, keep your nose down and don’t respond to hate and fear doesn’t
seem right, either.
If every difference-maker kept silent, only the angry and
fear-filled would be represented.
So I choose to speak.
I was not sold on either candidate…in my mind I chose the
one that aligned more with my concerns.Those concerns tipped the scale every so slightly in one direction. My concerns may be different than
others but doesn’t make me an uneducated white racist. My vote doesn’t mean that I want someone to
come and take away your Hispanic baby, remove your health insurance, send you
to another country, or take away your house. It doesn’t mean I have low respect
for women, quite the contrary. Deleting friends doesn't make them or the issues go away, it just decreases the size of your bubble. I've watched safely from behind a keyboard as friend after friend emerges to debate and defend only to watch them be swallowed alive. I'm not here to debate, only to tell you how I plan to move forward. I don’t
know if things will get better, but I have a Hope that doesn’t rest on
government, certainly not on social media, my community, or even my self. My hope rests a bit higher. I choose Love. Not the pay-for-Starbucks kinda
love, a bigger, better Love. Here's my Love Action Plan:
1) To
believe nothing of what I hear (or read) and only half of what I see, I will
train myself to filter, research, question everything. I will not perpetuate
fear/hate so if I haven’t researched it fully, I will not share it with the
world.
2) To
raise educated children that treat others with respect, defend the defenseless
and know without a doubt that they are fully loved.
3) To become visible in the community, battling the negative and showing the world that those who choose to spew hate and fear do not represent the whole.
4) Continue
to encourage, lift-up, and listen to every single woman I am blessed to
encounter each day by being intentional and transparent.
5) Continue
to pray… perhaps encouraging others to do the same.
This world seems soon to unhinge. It would be much easier to stay comfortable believing
everything will be okay but doing nothing. So this house chooses Love…we will
continue to treat every soul we meet with absolute love regardless of
bumper sticker or yard sign, regardless of skin color, regardless of sexual
orientation, regardless of religion and I will watch with eager anticipation
how my prayers will show up in extraordinary ways.
