I look at my daughter in her beautiful Sunday dress and bouncing strawberry blond hair and exasperatingly say, "Abigail! Sit like a lady!" So sits up straight, puts her legs together, and pulls her dress to cover her knees. I tell you, at age 2, she seems to be getting the concept that I'm seeing so little teenagers (and even some grown women) forget: we are ladies. Today I was helping out in my sons' school library when I noticed a young girl in a cute outfit...but her bra strap was very clearly showing. Her attire became the topic of conversation among us women shelving books and organizing the check out counter. Well, not necessarily her attire, but really how so many girls these days seem to forget how to be presentable and still be a lady. I was telling them that my favorite time of the year to teach was the winter. I knew that my female students would have to cover up or freeze their little tushes off! It was so embarrassing to try to have a conversation with someone whose outfit left little to the imagination.
On my way back to the house, I was thinking about these things. It's funny how these things to come up. I was just talking to a friend about how different wives are submissive to their husbands. We started the conversation because we were commenting on how our daughters tend to laugh at and participate in crude conversations (albeit right now, the "crude" conversation is limited to potty talk...literally). It then progressed to how women (young and old) treat males. Although a woman can stand up and think for herself, that does not mean she has to be disrespectful in words or actions to the men in their lives. I was telling my friend at how ashamed I am in the way I treated the males in my life when I was younger. I had it in my mind that I was going to be just as good at everything as they are. Even some of my likes today stemmed from trying to fit in and be on "level ground" with the guys in my life. Again, it's not wrong for me to enjoy football, but there is a ladylike way to handle watching it as well.
I then remembered a movie I just saw recently called A Man Named Peter. I only saw about 45 minutes of the movie, but what I saw really hit me. Peter Marshall, the main character in the movie, and who, by the way, is based off a true story, was going to a youth rally to try to convince the young people (of the 1940s) to have a little more respect for, well, everything. The youth were rowdy and disrespectful, and, quite frankly, acted like so many youth I see today. It was funny how that behavior is pretty much consistent over the years. What really hit me, though, was when a young woman, who was speaking with Peter, spoke about women. The scene was so touching, and her words were so true, that I really could not have put it any better. I am going to attach a link to the clip below so you can see what she said that was so incredible.
What I would like to say, though, at least for myself, is that I am going to do my best to encourage my daughter to develop an attitude of a lady. I really would love for her to strive, just as I am a daily striving, to be like the woman in Proverbs 31: 10-31. This woman works, makes clothes, provides for her family, provides for her staff, sees to the needs of those less fortunate, and so much more. If more and more women would take on training their daughters to be ladies and not princesses or "man-ish", I really think we would see a whole new way of how men will see women. Maybe then Woman will be returned to her glory that God so wonderfully placed us in.
No comments:
Post a Comment