I advocate because I am a strong female and it is my nature on top of decades of personal experience that stirs something in me to charge to the battle line when there is an injustice.
Imagine my feeling that there must be a mistake in the universe when I accepted a job at a group home for girls (to have it turn out to be bogus), then the opportunity opened for me to be a volunteer at a crisis pregnancy ministry. It was me lining myself up to be willing to serve for significance sake in the areas I thought were my strengths, then to find myself working in a men's homeless shelter/meal ministry.
Wrong gender, God. I was 100% in the direction of advocating for women when I land myself in a position surrounded by men. I actually wondered if I was being tested for obedience ... Let's throw her in a position out of her comfort zone and see how she responds.
What I am finding is that while I understand women so much more, I am actually really good with men. I am very well received, liked, praised, and protected in my new environment and I laugh to myself because while I am more quiet spoken, the staff and men feel they need to protect me more.
The staff has questioned my comfort level being surrounded by men and often being the only woman present in the facility. I am absolutely, completely comfortable.
When I go to the podium in the evening for devotion and prayer before dinner, the staff has commented they hear how quiet the guys get to listen. That is a trick. If you speak loud to shout over the chatter, people don't care what they miss. If you speak in a normal to softer tone, they shush up pretty quick.
Stan is our resident body guard during meal times. I believe he feels he has to protect me and I smile to myself. I want to say, "Please do not confuse professional, sweet, warm and friendly as weakness." I simply don't feel as if I have to flex my muscles to prove anything.
The gift of influence is the invisible power that women overlook.
Femininity is definitely strength under control.
Femininity is strength wrapped in a velvet glove.
It doesn't insist on its own way, but most of the time it gets it.
- Michelle McKinney Hammond
I am certain I will be put to the test many times in my new position and in those moments I will not blink or hesitate to raise my voice and command attention and authority. My downfall is that I am very brave, overly confident, and not easily intimidated.
While I thought I was ideal to serve working with women, God just may see it differently.
I've been known to be wrong a few (bzillion) times before.
