On Thursday we got to spend the day at Six Flags. The kids had earned free tickets through their reading program and I also earned one because I am their teacher! :) So we got to bring the whole family for the price of one ticket, that we got at half-price on base. It's a great deal and we go once a year with our reading passes. We always try to go on the day when they have a Christian Music Artist doing a concert. The concert is free along with getting into the park - so it's like a two-for-one, actually two-for-none, as we weren't paying for our tickets either. This year we went on the day that Tenth Avenue North was playing. Two years ago we saw Toby Mac. As my oldest sons, particularly Jammer, is VERY into music we find this a great way to encourage him in listening to music that encourages him in his faith walk, ours too!
Anyhow, as you can imagine, it was very hot day - 100 degrees. After a couple hours of riding rides and getting split between big kids and little kids - we decided to head over to the waterpark. We all got into the lazy river and floated around for a while. Everyone enjoyed cooling down a bit and even the little boys, safe in their life jackets, enjoyed the water. After we traveled around the circle that encompassed the lazy river a few times, the older kids were getting restless to ride some of the water slides. We took one last tour around and then decided to head over to the pool area that is surrounded by slides. The little ones could swim and enjoy all the sprinklers and buckets in the pool, while the big kids rode some slides. We were enjoying the splashing when the inevitable bathroom run needed to happen. This is where my attitude for the day changed. Before this bathroom run - it was just a fun day at the park with the family - after this bathroom run, the Lord reminded me to be ready and willing to be used by him.
I entered the bathroom and hurried Twinkletoes into the stall, stripping off her swim shirt so she could remove her bathing suit as she did the pee-pee hop. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a woman staring, really staring, not checking her hair or make-up, but deeply staring at herself in the mirror. I stood outside the stall and held the door shut as Twinkletoes did her business. I looked at the ground as to not make the woman feel uncomfortable. All of a sudden she turned to me and asked me a question. It caught me off guard so I wasn't sure I understood her question at first. I asked her to repeat herself. Sure enough she had asked, "Do you think I look like a man?"
This woman standing in front of me was definitely not a man, she was a voluptuous woman with a very pretty face. I compassionately stated, "No of course not, you are a very beautiful woman. Why would you say that?" Her response was, "When I look at myself, that is all I see." I don't know where in her heart this was coming from. I don't know if someone else had teased her about looking like a man or if she was feeling so insecure as a woman that she was looking to find identity in a false notion driven by our society which has blurred the line so much between male and female, man and woman. All I knew was this woman standing in front of me was deeply wounded. You could see it in her eyes.
I went on to share with her that I thought she was a beautiful woman on the outside but that I also believed beauty was so much more than skin deep. That true beauty comes from our hearts and who we are on the inside. Tears began to stream down this woman's face. As Hannah finished in the bathroom, I reached out and gave her a hug and reminded her once again that she was a beautiful woman, inside and out. She gave me a heartfelt thank you and turned and exited the bathroom. As she left I felt the urge to remind her that God created her so special and loved her, but I puased too long and she was gone, the moment lost.
As I helped Hannah wash her hands, my heart hurt for this dear woman and so many others out there that feel so caught up in their physical self-image and find their value in things that are fleeting. Our society under the label "feminism" and "tolerance" has fed woman garbage for their souls. It has stripped woman of their true identity and worth. It makes me so angry!! I understand how easy it is to fall into the trap, I know the loneliness and despair personally from back in my high school and college days. What lies we as woman believe.
In the past few years I have been studying about the feminine genius and the irreplaceable role God has given woman in this world. The dignity and worth that is found in living as we are created to be. How we are complementary to men, and how vital it is that we allow and support the men in our lives to fulfill their purpose and role. They need us and we need them. We NEED woman to be woman and men to be men. It is written into our very nature and physiology. We do not take away from each other, we do not need to compete with each other, we do not need to prove ourselves better than the other. We are not lesser than men and neither are we greater. We are equal in dignity, as dignity which comes from being created in the image and likeness of God. Our roles, as men and women, in transforming and bringing love and truth to our society are complementary and both critically necessary.
I pray that I may help my girls to view themselves in the awesomeness of how they were created to be. I pray I may encourage them along the path to embrace the woman that God created them for and to not be ashamed of the gifts they have to offer as a woman. I pray they will not fall into the mire of lies that our society feeds - that woman need to be everything. That they are not worthy if they are not "beautiful" in the world's eyes and that they are not purposeful unless they are proving themselves better than others. I pray they may experience true love - sacrificial love - both from the giving and receiving end! Not the lie that love is physical and a feeling, that love is found in sex, that love is another person fulfilling all our needs and desires, that love just happens but then can just as easily leave us. True love takes work and it endures - it is so worth it!
After this two minute exchange in the bathroom this woman and I went our separate ways, but this dear woman is in my thoughts and in my prayers. I pray this brief exchange may settle on her heart and speak the Truth of God to her in those moments of quiet. She has caused me to pause and reexamine how I am viewing my own worth and the worth of those around me. Am I looking at the heart as God does, or am I looking at the exterior as man does? Lord, please give me your eyes! Thank you for using me and teaching me through the heart of this broken woman. Help her to experience your love today!
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