Women Conference Inspirational Quotes

I loved, loved loved the General Women's Conference 

my daughter and I watched last night!

There were beautiful messages about the divine role of women, finding the divinity within us, the need to be virtuous, and how we as women can be better followers of Jesus Christ.  You can watch the conference in the link above, but I also wanted to share some of my favorite and inspiring quotes below.  Please feel free to share them, my blog, and a brand new website I created with other bloggers to help people cope with grief, heal and move forward.  You can find it at HowDoIGoOn.org 

Sometimes when we are in difficult circumstances we don't see an happiness now or ahead. We can get trapped in darkness and blinded by fear. As we reach in faith and hope to a great power for help we can open our eyes to happiness not just at some future point, but right now. We become aware of the tender mercies in our lives and that gratitude brings us light.

#ldsconf

Summer with Great-Aunt Rose

"The divine nature within us ignites our desire to reach out to others and prompts us to act."  The knowledge of who we are forever changes us.  We can be gifted with His love for others and we can become changed for the better... to do more and feel more that we ever could alone.

#ldsconf

Discovering the Divinity Within

There are times, especially at night, when the busyness of the day is gone and I am left to my thoughts, that I began to fear about the future. I wonder what will happen in my life now. So many of my hopes and dreams are gone and I am trying to replace them, but that can be hard to do when so much of the future is unknown and dependent upon things that I cannot control. In those moments it helps me to remember that someone knows me better than I know myself and He can see in me things that I cannot see. That is when I remember to pray. Those prayers are more heartfelt and pleading than any I have had before in my life. If I am still and I can set my fears aside, I can get a glimpse of what He sees.

"There is a divinity within you... You are a children of God, and because you are His child, He know who you can become. He knows your fears and your dreams. He relishes your potential. He waits for you to come to Him in prayer." 

That divinity that is within me and you allows us to rise above our situations as we seek a great power for help. I may feel weak and incapable and uncertain on my own, but when I reconnect myself with Him, then I can see that spark within me. It gets ignited and I feel that enabling power helping me to go on.

#ldsconf

Discovering the Divinity Within

The power to do good flows from us and influences those around us when we seek to know how to 

use our light to do good. 

"We are the Lord's agents and we are always on His errand."

We have the power to share the light within us. When we understand who we are and we feel in our heart what He would have us do and then we act on those promptings more light flows into us... it can fill the wholes we have... it can change us and it can empower us to help fill others.

#ldsconf

Here to Serve a Righteous Cause

The Processing of Turning Outward: Overcoming Roadblocks

The Processing of Turning Outward:

 Overcoming Roadblocks

For the last two months I have really been struggling, being sent back into grief and crying for a period almost everyday.  I have been asking,

"What in the world is going on?  

Why all of the sudden am I having such a hard time?"

People tell me it is normal, and it is just part of grief.  They tell me to give it time and focus more on myself, but I have rarely found relief in focusing on me.  I was reminded of these two companion quotes...

"'Hell is being frozen in self-pity.'  Indeed at times when we think our lot is hard or when we feel ourselves misunderstood, it will be so easy of us to indulge ourselves in feeling some self-pity."- Maxwell

George Macdonald reminded us that "the only door out of the dungeon of self pity is the love of one's neighbor." 

So in response, I have been trying to serve, study my scriptures, and pray and in those moments.  I do feel a temporary lifting when I am doing those things, but the cloud has just kept coming back.
Persistently I have kept trying to discover what I needed to do in order to get back the peace that I was feeling before.

As of late, I have been studying the Character of Christ.

I have been noticing how He always turned outwards even in moments of personal pain and distress.  As I have been reflected on my inward turning and feeling sorry for myself,  I have known that I needed to change that.  Uncertain as to how I could make that happen...

I have prayed for help...

I have tried to push those feeling away...

but something else was missing.

As I began to look more carefully at myself, I saw the root of some negative feelings.  I have been feeling additional stress because of difficulties with a service project that I am working on with several other widows and a grief counselor.  It's something that I feel very driven to do because of it's potential to help a lot of people.  Lots of road block have been thrown up recently to prevent it from going forward.  That has really frustrated me.  I have found myself questioning God, saying in my mind...

"If you really want me to do this, then why is it so hard to do?"   

"Why don't you fix it and send me more help!"

Okay...

so I agree... 

that was not the best stance to take with God and it was not the best way to solicit help.

As I look back on those statements, I see a lot turning inward and very little turning outward.  Frustrated, confused and in a bad place, I didn't know how to overcome this hurdle.

At the same time I was listening to a talk by a man I greatly respect.  I heard him speak when I was a teenager and he has since passed away from Cancer.  He said in this older talk that...

Most of our suffering "comes because of our sins." (Neil A Maxwell, "But for a Small Moment.")  

Honestly, at first this statement kind of rubbed me wrong.  I got a bit defensive and I thought,

"My suffering is because my husband died in a plane crash!  Not because of anything that I have done... in fact, I am trying to do a lot of good things... Don't I deserve a break or a little credit here?"

Again, my attitude was clearly in opposition to God... and I knew that.  I knew what I was feeling was wrong and as I mulled that idea in my mind, my heart began to soften and I began to ask in prayer what I needed to do to change.

As I prayed an idea came into my mind.  It was actually something that I felt I needed to do months ago, but that I had not gotten around to doing because I was uncertain how to go about it.  I knew that if I sold some very special personal items,  I could use the money to pay for the help that I needed to get the project moving.

This was a hard decision, because these were items that were tied to special memories with my husband.  Honestly, at this point, I was desperate and so tired of feeling rotten that I was willing to do about anything to get that peaceful feeling back.

I moved forward and made arrangements to sell the items. Immediately I was drawn into the trap of trying to get more money for them.  Again, I felt worried and stressed and I cried frequently.  After talking things over with my mom and again going to the Lord in prayer, I felt at peace with taking the route that would insure that I could move forward more quickly even though it was not the one that could potentially bring me the most money.  I felt that the money was not the issue here.

I was being asked to sacrifice something that was special to me for the greater good.

God didn't just step in and fix my problem for me.

He showed me how I could use the resources He had already given me and with a little work of my own how I could help more people than just myself.

It was the lesson that I needed to practice...

That of turning from self and turning towards Him...  

the act of following His example and turning outwards to others even when I was in pain.

After the items were sold and a lot of tears were shed, I got into my car to drive home and a feeling of peace settled upon me.  I knew that I had made the right decision.

"We have a Father who loves us specifically and gives us things to do and, because he loves us, will cause us, at times, to have our souls stretched and to be fitted for a better world by coping with life in this world."

"If God chooses to teach us the things we most need to learn because he loves us, and if he seeks to tame our souls and gentle us in the way we most need to be tamed and most need to be gentled, it follows that he will customize the challenges he gives us and individualize them so that we will be prepared for life in a better world by his refusal to take us our of this world, even though we are not of it." 

"In the eternal ecology of things we must pray, therefore not that things be taken from us, but that God's will be accomplished through us... For there is in each of our lives this kind of divine design, this pattern, this purpose that is in the process of becoming."          - Neil A Maxwell

I learned a little bit more about these statements this week.

• I learned about how turning from self to others can enable me to get through grief and feel peace.  
• I learned that God is content to pull down the walls of my little cottage so that He can build something better.  

I want that something better... 

not just for me, but so that I can do more good.  

So that I don't have to be of two minds and constantly struggling and battling within myself.  

I would rather have one mind... His mind.

So thinking back on that statement about sin and suffering...  Was I doing something particularly wrong or sinful?  No, not really, but I wasn't following through on what I had felt God wanted me to do and that was enough to knock me out of alignment.  I was dragging my feet and hoping that He would not require of me that kind of a sacrifice.  I was too turned inward and not turned enough outward.

He was trying to help me understand that, 

and the suffering did exactly that.

Why do we suffer then?  I believe it is so that we will turn to God for help and we will have an incentive to change.  I don't think that God likes to see us suffer, but if that suffering will cause us to become someone better, then He allows it for His greater purposes.

So I'm over this hurdle for now, but I am sure that many more hurdles are in my future.  Hopefully this lesson will sink a little deeper this time and my turning will me quicker the next road block I face.

My question for you, is how has turning outward blessed your life?

Lessons Learned in Helping Others: Knowing When Give Help and When to Hold Back - part 3

Lessons Learned in Helping Others: 

Knowing When Give Help and When to Hold Back

Staying close to the spirit is key.

Sometimes when we help others, the answer is to let go of their hands for a while and let them walk on their own.  When we are involved in helping, sometimes we feel that WE need to be there to help them through every difficulty. That is not what the Savior does for us.  

Over involvement can actually prevent their learning and growth 

because they do not gain confidence in their ability to change on their own.

When we are prompted to pull back, we should always express confidence in their ability to make correct decisions and act righteously. We have to give the people we help opportunities to get their own personal revelation, do their own spiritual thinking, grow their own testimonies.  If they lean on us forever, then they never will be individually strong. 

Letting someone go can be a scary thing...

to let them choose when you know they could stumble,

but stumbling is the only way we learn to catch ourselves.

It is the only way to grow. 

Our caring must be pure in motive. That takes some deep introspection and turning our will over to God. We have to want to help someone because we want what is best for them, not because we want anything in return. That also means restraining ourselves and subjugating our own wills to God.  A story about my son illustrates my point. 

I wanted my son to do well in school, and we were having a lot of conflict over grades.  I realized that my desire for him to get good grades was mostly about my desire to control his life plan.  I did not want him to have to suffer any bad consequences, but my plan for him was not necessarily God's plan. I had to change my focus.  I needed to accept that maybe God needed to teach him important lessons. My plans for him to go to college and medical school may not have been in line with the things he needed to learn.  I was equating success with my son's ability to provide well for a family. Although God wants husbands and fathers to do that, His greater plan focuses on the man He wants my son to become. When I finally accepted this and tried to turn my will over to God in this matter, He enabled me with understanding. I knew how to better deal with my son, and the grief and worry that I felt was lifted.

 I needed to trust God, not me to fix the problem.

Lessons Learned in Helping Others: 

Becoming Vulnerable Can Help Heal Pain 

part 1

Lessons Learned in Helping Others:

Change takes time

part 2

Random Acts of Kindness: Share Your Light and Get it Back in Return

Random Acts of Kindness

When you share your light, you get more back than you give in return

I found a new little way to give service today, and it just really brightened my day. I find myself looking for these opportunities all the time now.  These small acts lift my spirits and help me to not only be happy, but to feel JOY again. It was easy and simple and I thought,  

"Wow, I could do this more often!... I need to do this more often!  I have to be more aware and look for these opportunities.  I need to pray to find them."

Service helps to heal me!

This is so opposite of all of the advice I got when my husband died...

"Take more time for yourself... Take it easy... Go watch a movie, Get a massage, Indulge yourself."

It was all about ME, ME, ME.

Honestly, those things band-aided the problem for the moment, but did not move me forward.  They brought TEMPORARY pleasure, but not lasting JOY or HAPPINESS.

(I am not advocating that you don't take time to do positive things for yourself to help the healing process.  Studying and reading books that taught me how to heal,  journaling and pondering were all key components that helped me to process the tragedy of my husband's death, but reaching out to lift others is what has really helped me to heal.)

Back to my experience today...

I decided I needed to take dinner over to a friend who has been under a lot of stress trying to raise a large family and go to school at the same time. Knowing the size of their family, I determined that a few Papa Murphy's pizzas should do the trick. It was still early in the morning, about 10:30, when I arrived at the store. The door was locked. Frustrated, I looked for the store hours to see when it opened. 

"Gosh, darn it! Not until 11:00"… Sigh… 

"I guess I have to come back later this afternoon."

As I was standing there contemplating, an employee from the back hurried up to the front and unlocked the door. I said, 

"Oh,  I'm sorry. I know,  you don't open until 11:00." 

I completely expected her to tell me to come back later.  Instead, she replied, 

"That's okay. Come in. We're here anyway."  

I was so surprised! Normally employees wait until the last minute to open the doors not wanting to have to do anymore work than they are officially contracted to do. Both girls in the store cheerfully made my pizzas. I told them about the family I was helping. She handed me my order with a cheerful smile, I went to walk out the door, and then a thought popped into my mind,

 "You should thank her." 

So I told her how much I appreciated that they had gone the extra mile to help me that morning and how unusual I thought it was. I told her what great employees I thought they were.  Again I went to leave, but a second thought entered my mind, 

"You should write a note to their manager to let him know what great employees he has." 

I remembered how much my husband appreciated good employees and how good he was about thanking them everyday.  I asked for some paper, and on the back of an order form, I  jotted down a quick note.  As I left I felt so good about the interaction. Good because they had served me, and because I had done something kind in return.

As I drove home, I thought how easy it would be to NOTICE when people do extra kind things for me, to verbally THANK them, and then to write a note to their supervisor if possible. I thought, 

"Sure, it might take a little extra time, but I bet those girls will have an awesome day when they give their manager the note." 

That's worth a little extra time... 

 Isn't it?

A little LIGHT… 

All it takes is ONE little light shining in the darkness.

As we share that light, others began to let their light shine. 

How much light can you spread  today? 

Here's my favorite 'get up and dance' song about spreading a little light and pushing back the dark.

Pushing Back the Dark- Josh Wilson

Try to spread a little light today and then come back and post. 

I would love to hear all the great ideas that are out there.

Lessons Learned in Helping Others: Change takes time- part 2

Lessons Learned in Helping Others:

Change takes time

part 2

I have learned that change does not happen overnight.  

Change takes lots of time and must happen line upon line. Often there are two steps forward and one step back. However, we do not have to endure this process alone. Through the pain and exhaustion that often comes, we can turn to the Lord for help.  I found this out as I was helping someone who was spiritually struggling. I knew the Lord wanted me to help them, I knew of their potential, but I found myself very worried about them breaking my trust. I was worried at the hurt I would feel. 'What if...' thoughts consumed my head as I created all sorts of possible scenarios in my mind.  I felt I could not function. I couldn't concentrate on helping anyone else. I could not concentrate on my children. My patience was gone. I found my own grief seeping back into my mind. I knew all of these feelings were not from God, but from Satan.  Over the next few days I prayed and studied and read about not being judgmental (See prior post: The Lord Looketh on the Heart:  My journey to becoming less judgmental.) 

"Heavenly Father, I just can't bear this anymore.  I can't focus and be a good mom.  I can't help other people.  If I am supposed to help this person, then please lift this pain so that I can do my work." 

Then it was literally gone.  

The pain was replaced by understanding, empathy and peace. 

That's how I knew I was doing what I was supposed to be doing.

Praying when I felt that way,

 allowed God to show me how the atonement

 could enable me to be His hands. 

If we are truly doing the things that God wants us to do and we don't have the ability to do it on our own, He will enable us with those abilities. That is the enabling power of his grace. Remember, God can take weak things and make them become strong.

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I  give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my  grace is sufficient for all men that  humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make  weak things become strong unto them.  Ether 12:27

As I turned my will over to God in this matter, I was also given understanding. My worries and lack of trust were lifted. I knew that the process of change that this person needed to go through would be up-and-down. I knew that it couldn't happen overnight. I understood that for every two steps forward there might be a step backwards. The Lord gave me patience to deal with the situation. He gave me distance and perspective to emotionally withdraw myself. I knew that I had to unconditionally care about this person no matter what, and the Lord gave me the tools that enabled me to do it. That was a testimony to me that I was on the right path. If ever those feelings have tried to creep in again, immediately, I remind myself of the answer to that prayer.   As soon as I have done this those feelings have left my mind.  

Lessons Learned in Helping Others: Becoming Vulnerable Can Help Heal Pain  part 1

Lessons Learned in Helping Others: Becoming Vulnerable Can Help Heal Pain - part 1

Lessons Learned in Helping Others:
Becoming Vulnerable Can Help Heal Pain
part 1

Often when we go through difficult things we pull inward and become more guarded. We want to protect ourselves from more hurt and pain. Although it is counterintuitive, I have found that making myself vulnerable has helped to heal my pain. 

A friend of mine shared this thought on a Widow/widower's Facebook group.

"Living a life of purpose, mission or service can be intense, sometimes heartbreaking and exhausting, and at the same time enormously fulfilling." 

This statement hit the nail right on the head for me. The things that I have been recently experiencing as I try to reach out and help others fall under the categories of 'intense,' 'heartbreaking,' and 'exhausting.'  Yet, despite it all, they bring me great fulfillment and joy. I have come to realize that all of these emotions mean I'm doing it right. I remind myself of quote I had in my room as a teenager.  It says, 

 "I never said it would be easy... I only said it would be worth it." 

Worth it, it is in the long run, even though in the moment we may not feel that to be the case.  I personally believe that before we came to earth, we signed up to do hard things.  We did it for two reasons...

1. We wanted to learn how to become better...more like Christ.
2. We loved and wanted to help those we love.

When I was struggling with the heartbreaking and exhausting part in one particular situation, I prayed for extra guidance. This was the thought that came in my mind after that prayer, and I wrote it down.

 "Don't be afraid of the pain you must go through.    It will teach you the empathy that you need to learn." 

To me, this realization opened my eyes to feeling pain. 

It helped me to...

 accept it, 

understand it, 

and find purpose in it.

Christ wept for those he served.  He put his whole heart into his work.  I realized that I couldn't hold back love because of fear of being hurt.  The only way to really influence someone and make a change is to unconditionally care about them. 

Caring opens us up to potential hurt, 

but caring creates faith in the person we are serving. 

As they feel our love for them, they will remember and become confident in God's love for them.  As we trust them they will gain confidence to make those changes. Sometimes people are so broken that they don't know what to believe in. They no longer believe in themselves or in the love that God has for them. They feel unworthy of that love, and some may even choose to believe that it does not exist. 

Sometimes they wonder if they're worth saving. 

They need someone to believe in them so they can start to believe. 

CARING CREATES FAITH 

It opens a place in their heart for it to grow. 

It opens up the opportunity for change.

When people don't make those changes and choose to pull away, it can hurt.  To combat this, we have to trust that God loves them too.  His hand is stretched out still. He will find ways to bring them back. 

Sometimes we simply have to keep caring,

choose not to get offended and hurt,

keep encouraging,

keep expressing trust and confidence in them,

and wait patiently.  

Be a Light

Let Your Light So Shine...

How can I be so different from 15 months ago?  How can one single event, encompassing only a few minutes so completely and utterly changed me? 

Today I had a conversation with my two relators that I had not planned on having that took up over a hour.  They were coming to take pictures before I listed my home. The girl I was before would have been cordial but abrupt and rushed wanting to get onto the next task. I would have been frazzled by trying to get the house in perfect condition, and I would have be irritated that my day was being delayed by having 'to deal' with a person that I was quite frankly indifferent towards.  My life was full of to do lists and tasks to be done.  I measured my self worth by what I got accomplished in a day.  I relished comments such as, "I don't know how you do it all.  How do you get so much done?"  To which I always replied that multitasking and goal setting was the key.


In that moment when my world came crashing down, all of the multitasking and to do lists and temporal accomplishment seems very insignificant and empty.  The only thing that mattered was my relationship with my husband.  How I wished that I could regain minutes pouring over recipes when we were traveling together or evenings prepping fancy breakfasts while he sat upstairs watching reruns of Fraiser.  Now, don't get me wrong.  Scott and I spent a lot of time reconnecting everyday.  I met him for lunch, we texted and we always tried to go on an evening walk or sat in the tub together (depending on how his knees felt at the end of the day.)  In fact, I sacrificed a lot of relationships with other friends to be with my husband, and I don't regret a moment of that.  But  his loss made me want to gather up every wasted or lost minute just to have a few more of them.


At his funeral, I was shocked at the shear numbers of people who came, who he had influenced, who wrote letters and stories about the difference he made in their lives.  I thought...If it had been me, then

Getting Ready to Swim

Getting Ready to Swim

Today is Sunday and we are snowed in! So you may be wondering why am I talking about swimming?  I had the day to do some pondering and studying and journal writing.  At the one year mark of Scott's death and then again on our 21st wedding anniversary and my birthda,  I felt this combination of excitement and fear.  Fear to leave this comfortable place I have found in my life (my little SANDBAR that I wrote about in September) and excitement that changes are going to happen this year.  I sense that it is time to move forward and that there is more for me to do.  It's time for me to get ready to swim.

I find it strange that as I prepare to relist my house, that I am not worried about it selling like I was last year.  I feel very much at peace about the whole thing.  I know that if I am doing what is right and listening to the Spirit that it is in the Lord's hands.  When the time is right, it will sell and not a minute sooner. I am curious to discover all of the purposes for the delay and revamping of my plans.  I have found that the reasons are always revealed in hindsight, and that I am often amazed and surprised at how wonderfully orchestrated my life ends up being.  Although it is contrary to the 'planner' in me, I am just waiting for that wave to crash over my sandbar before I figure out what comes next.  That seems to be the answer that I get, "Be patient and wait.  You will be very surprised and it will be great!"  I've never been much for surprises, but I guess this is just another lesson for me to learn.

In someways I wish that my sandbar could just exist for the rest of my life here.  That my children would stay and that I would continue to be able to study and serve people like I am doing now.  But time does not allow us to stay stagnant.  Whether we want it to or not, it moves on and the waves will slowly wash and reform this bar of sand that I am resting on.  Eventually, it will not exist anymore.  In reality I do want time to change.  I want Alex and Cooper to return from their missions.  I want them to marry and rebuild our family.  I want to finds someone who can love me and help me through the rest of my time here.  I want someone to be a grandfather for my grandkids, and an assistant parent to the ones I still have at home.  I would love for Scott to still be that person.  I would love for all of our plans for the future to return, but God has a different path than that for my life.  It's sometime hard to see how His path could be better, but I have ultimate faith that when I return to Scott someday and our great big family is reunited, that it will all make perfect sense and that I will clearly remember and know that it needed to be this way.

Swimming is scary though!  I don't know how rough the water will be, and I do not know how long I will need to swim before the next sandbar.  I ask myself, "Will I be strong enough?

Resolve to do Difficult Things

Resolve to do Difficult Things

So, I had a rough morning today... actually it’s been an up and down difficult two weeks. Why is it that it always takes hard things to make us dig deep and turn to God for answers? Why is it that my first inclination is to turn to others for advice first instead of to Him. Well, this time I think it is that I don’t like the answers that I am getting. They are not the ones that I want right now. I’ve gone back and forth trying to talk myself out of them, but what I really need is resolve to follow through on the things the spirit is telling me to do... even though it is going to be hard and difficult. 

I’ve been working on a legacy book for the 1 year mark for each of my kids. My sister helped compile all of the stories people sent in about Scott and I just had to put the pictures in it. So last night I went through all of the recent photos of him. Ones of him flying and at the driving class the day he died. (His driving instructor took some amazing photos and a close up that I use on my computer screen- I’ll include it at the end) It’s still so hard, I miss him so very much. Despite everything that I know and feel to be true about this being part of the plan and about the important things I need to do, when I’m facing some hard decisions I just can’t help but wish that he was here to hold me and fix it all. In fact if he was here it wouldn’t even be an issue. So I think the legacy book has made all of this even more difficult.

So after some tears this morning I decided to do some studying. I needed to prepare a message for the women that I am assigned to visit once a month. (In our church we do that to keep track of one another and to help each other. It helps us learn how to love like the Savior. I love to go Visiting Teaching every month, and I have always made my very best friends through those interactions) The lesson this month is on the divine mission of Jesus Christ as the creator. I didn’t really think it would apply to my situation, but I needed to prepare it anyway. It is amazing to me that when I finally decide to turn to the Lord through his scriptures or the words of the prophets that he answers the questions in my heart through the Holy Ghost. This was the passage at the end of the lesson...

We have been created in God’s image (see Moses 2:26–27), and we have divine potential. The Prophet Joseph Smith admonished the sisters in Relief Society to “live up to [their] privilege.” With that encouragement as a foundation, sisters in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been taught to live up to their divine potential by fulfilling God’s purposes for them. “As they come to understand who they really are—God’s daughters, with an innate capacity to love and nurture—they reach their potential as holy women.”

“You are now placed in a situation where you can act according to those sympathies which God has planted in your bosoms,” said the Prophet Joseph Smith. “If you live up to these principles how great and glorious!—if you live up to your privilege, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates.”

Divine Potential...As a youth, one of our values was Divine Nature. We believe that as the literal spirit children of our Heavenly Father that we have the ability to someday become like Him, much like a child can eventually grow up and has the potential to become like their earthly parents. This view is pretty unique to our church, but it is a beautiful truth and an amazing goal to have, one that gives me a purpose and gives me a reason to be here. When we realize what our potential is, then we realize how much we are truly capable of. We have the potential to do amazing things! This statement was given by the Prophet Joseph Smith to the women of the church to let them know of the special divine gifts that women are given: to be empathetic and charitable, to share love, and nurture others. These are not traits that denote weakness, rather they indicate divinity.

It was the last paragraph that I felt was directly given to me.