It's Good to be a Woman

 

There is a quiet miracle in rediscovering what it truly means to be a woman. For many of us, that rediscovery comes later in life, after we have lived beneath expectations that were never ours to carry. We watched our mothers and grandmothers navigate a world that often asked them to shrink. We saw strength hidden behind silence, dreams tucked away for the sake of survival. We told ourselves we would not be like them.

Then came the opposite pressure. As women stepped into leadership and corporate spaces, we were told to set aside our femininity to be taken seriously. To succeed, we had to blend in, toughen up, and become indistinguishable from the men beside us. The world applauded our ambition but asked us to mute the very qualities God designed within us.

And all the while, the media and beauty industries offered their own definitions of womanhood. They shaped an image so polished and artificial that our true femininity became nearly unrecognizable beneath it.

To peel back these layers and reclaim the woman God created us to be is not easy. It is a journey. It is a return. It is, in many ways, a pilgrimage of the heart.

More than thirty years ago, in the early days of motherhood, I wrote down what I was beginning to understand about being a woman. Today, with a deeper faith and a clearer lens, I see how those early stirrings pointed toward something profoundly biblical.

Because the truest picture of womanhood is found in Scripture, and most beautifully in Mary’s yes. When the angel Gabriel appeared to her in Luke 1, Mary responded with a courage that reshaped history: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Luke 1:38. Her yes was not passive. It was not weak. It was the strength of a woman fully surrendered to God, fully alive to her purpose, fully trusting in His goodness.

Here is what one woman (me) discovered in her quest to reclaim her femininity, seen through the light of Mary’s yes.

To be a woman means:

- We are entrusted with life. Whether through motherhood, spiritual influence, or the nurturing of others, we carry life in ways the world cannot measure. It is not a burden. It is a gift.

- We inherit the strength of the women who came before us. Their prayers, sacrifices, and faith echo through our own lives.

- We live on in our children, not only through blood, but through the love, wisdom, and faith we plant in them.

- We are uniquely called. God speaks to each woman personally, inviting her into a purpose only she can fulfill.

- We are beings of beauty, not the kind sold in advertisements, but the beauty that flows from a heart aligned with God.

- We honor the struggles of other women. Compassion is part of our design.

- We can recognize and celebrate the feminine in ourselves and in one another without comparison or competition.

- The feminine is sacred. God created it intentionally, and it reflects His tenderness, creativity, and nurturing heart.

- When we walk the way of beauty, God’s beauty, we discover trust, creativity, hope, love, and goodness.

- We acknowledge our shadows but refuse to be ruled by them. Redemption is always possible.

- Though we are individuals, our choices ripple outward, shaping how womanhood is seen in the world.

- We are connected to God in every aspect of life. Our femininity is not separate from our faith; it is an expression of it.

- We must resist the pressures that try to distort or diminish who God created us to be.

- We bear the male. We raise him. We shape the next generation of men through our tenderness, strength, and example.

- We carry within us the womb of life; physical, emotional, spiritual. Its meaning is profound and must not be discarded or diminished.

It is good to be a woman. It is holy. It is God-given. It is who we are.

And when we reclaim that truth, as Mary did, we step into a beauty that cannot be taken from us. A beauty rooted not in culture, but in Christ.