Mar 29 2008
Review of Womanhood
In a segment on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation this week, an LA Times columnist discussed college women going on spring break trips as a rite of passage into womanhood and a means to build self confidence. In the original article Raunch Is Rebranded as Confidence, the columnist, Meghan Daum, wrote:
It’s young people, women especially, deciding that the way to measure their readiness for the adult world is not in terms of education or emotional maturity but sexual desirability.
This segment has been stewing in my mind in sharp contrast to an inspiring discussion with my sister-in-law, Tina, about womanhood.
That contrast sparked a review of my own journey into womanhood which, ironically, began as a backlash from my own spring break trip that left me searching for more.
Eighteen years of my journey as a woman have revealed that real confidence and beauty in womanhood do not come from the fleeting feelings of affirmation from exploited attractiveness but by embracing and elevating everyday feminine opportunities.
Tina shared with me the song, A Woman of Grace, that she found through her participation in the women’s choir, We Also Sing.
Here’s a clip of A Woman of Grace and some words to consider while you listen:
One of your unique, precious, and sublime gifts is your femininity, with its natural grace, goodness, and divinity. Femininity is not just lipstick, stylish hairdos, and trendy clothes. It is the divine adornment of humanity.
It finds expression in your qualities of your capacity to love, your spirituality, delicacy, radiance, sensitivity, creativity, charm, graciousness, gentleness, dignity, and quiet strength. It is manifest differently in each girl or woman, but each of you possesses it. Femininity is part of your inner beauty.One of your particular gifts is your feminine intuition.
Do not limit yourselves. As you seek to know the will of our Heavenly Father in your life and become more spiritual, you will be far more attractive, even irresistible. You can use your smiling loveliness to bless those you love and all you meet, and spread great joy.
Femininity is part of the God-given divinity within each of you. It is your incomparable power and influence to do good. You can, through your supernal gifts, bless the lives of children, women, and men. Be proud of your womanhood. Enhance it. Use it to serve others.
James E. Faust
Womanhood the Highest Place of Honor
In the song and this quotation I FIND the real spirit and qualities of being a woman. While they are idealized, it is an ideal I hope to hand my daughters of what I have found to be truly desirable.
The words to A Woman of Grace were written by Patricia Holland, wife of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, as a tribute to Ruth Faust, after the passing of her husband, President James E. Faust, a leader in the LDS Church.
The music for this song was written by Merrilee Webb. CDs of the November 2007 performance of this song and others are available by sending $8.00 per CD to Merrilee Webb, 564 S. Thornwood, Salt Lake City, UT 84123.
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