Living Life Abundantly

My friend Dan shared this via email, enjoy!

A Woman’s Worth

We’ve come a long way baby

Tuesday, September 09, 2008
By Goldie Taylor

I have been a mother all of my adult life. A single working mother. I put off dating, took menial jobs far beneath my qualifications and baked my share of ginger bread cookies for PTA Night, all so that three incredible children could have better.

I chose their lives over mine. I don’t have to tell you that it wasn’t easy. Unfortunately, my story, our story, is not unique. We slept in cars, bought groceries with food stamps and prayed for a better day. When that wasn’t enough, I put myself through school at Emory University and took a part-time job as a staff writer at the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

That was over a decade ago. Along the way, things got better. I’ve been an executive at two Fortune 500 companies and a practice director at two multinational public relations firms. Today, I own an advertising agency and I’ve authored two novels. A third and fourth are on the way, God willing. All of this was possible because somebody laid a brick or two on the road for me.

A few weeks ago, I woke in tears. It was my 40th birthday and certainly not a time for sadness. Rather, I cried in joy because for the first time I realized and could embrace the value of the struggle. The bright little girl, who once cried in my arms because we didn’t know where we were going to live, was headed off to Brown University. The small boy who had been the “man of the house” far too soon was now truly a man. And the tiny, angelic baby who had come to this world precious and innocent just 15 months after him was now a 16 year old girl headed out to her first job interview.

For all of this, maybe I should be proud of a woman like Sarah Palin. Maybe, just maybe, I should be rejoicing in John McCain‘s selected running mate.

But I’m not.

I’m not “bed wetting liberal” nor am I a “right-wing zealot.” What I am is a working mother. And I cry foul. I won’t, for a moment, denigrate her experience or lob spit balls at her family. I will, though, take issue with what she knows. Or more succinctly, what she does not know. Living in Alaska, I’m not sure how much she knows about the people living in inner city Baltimore. I don’t know how much she cares about the 125 murders this summer in Chicago. I have no idea what she believes about HIV/AIDS and the havoc it wrecks on Black women or the cancer rates in East St. Louis. She hasn’t said nary a word about Hurricane Katrina or the infant mortality rates in Appalachia.

I do know that she’s a life-time member of the NRA, a proponent of individuals who wielded the very weapons that killed my father and brother. I do know that she “lives really close to Russia“, but I’m not so certain she is ready for Putin. I know she wanted to ban books for public libraries and sex education in schools, but that her 17 year old is pregnant and preparing for a shotgun wedding. I know that she loves her husband enough to allow him (and probably did herself) use her office to settle a personal score–one that the McCain campaign would now like to cover in under a blanket of Juneau snow. I know that the Alaska Independent Party, and its secessionist platform, was enticing enough for her to attend its conference (and for her husband to become a card carrying member). Does she love her country? I’m sure. Enough to support those who want to leave it.

But I have no earthly idea what she knows (or could possibly know) about national domestic policy or foreign diplomacy. For all of her working class values, she never once mentioned the Middle Class in her diatribe that mocked her opponent’s experience. Having been the mayor of Wasilla (pop. 6,000 at the time) and governor of Alaska (a state a smaller than the county I live in) for a little over a year, she felt she was qualified to do that.

And obviously, so did John McCain.

If she’s qualified, then so am I. But in this country I love, she has been afforded the ability to run. The very constitution she says doesn’t apply to the men at Guantanamo says she can. But this is about more than that.

As Gloria Steinem said in a recent Los Angeles Times editorial, “Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere. It’s not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It’s about baking a new pie.”

The good news is thanks to Shirley Chisholm, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Angela Davis, Condoleeza Rice, Anita Hill, Madeline Albright, Maxine Waters, Kathleen Sebelius, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and a slew of others, there are 18 million proverbial cracks in the ceiling. Our collective political and economic power is due to the strides (and leaps) they, and others, took on my behalf.

I am grateful. I am deeply humbled to stand on the bricks they’d laid before me.

But, whatever our struggle was (and is) that last thing I want is to be patronized. Just as I cannot support just any African-American who decides to offer themselves up for public service, I will not toss my vote to someone just because we share the same chromosome mix. To do so would dishonor the vow I made to my children, to myself. I did not vote for Al Sharpton, wasn’t old enough (nor would I have) voted for Jesse Jackson and I certainly will not support Sarah Palin. Identity politics, especially in this case, are a sham of the worst order.

When I cast my vote, it will be for people who will lay more bricks for people like me. It will be for people who will put diplomacy before war, challenge us all to provide healthcare for the sick, help another child go to college, and check the special interests in Washington. This fall, I’m not looking for a woman.

I’m looking for a brick layer.

I could care less if that person hasn’t spent “enough” time in Washington or can “properly field dress a moose”. I could care less if that person likes hockey, soccer, football or table tennis. I could care less if they graduated from Harvard or the University of Iowa. I’m a Christian, but I could care less if they are down with Deuteronomy, Leviticus or Numbers. I want them to uphold the Constitution.

So no, I will not sit idly by as they attempt to suspend habeas corpus at Guantanamo Bay, engage wiretaps on American citizens without a warrant, and hide behind executive privilege when they are caught firing attorney generals based on how well they tow the Republican line. I won’t let them cost us $12 billion a month fighting a war that should have never been authorized and never been waged. Not while working people lose their homes to predatory lenders and watch as we bail out the financial institutions that created the housing crisis.

I will not, in the name of history, vote for a woman like Sarah Palin who does not share my values.

But here is what I will do.

I will continue raising money for Barack Obama. I will get on the phone again and call people in distant states I’ve never met. I will e-mail, call, and knock on doors until the final vote is cast. I do this, not because he shares my skin, but because I admire his principals and he shares my values.

I do this because Barack Obama is more than a community organizer, he is a bricklayer. And he sees — just as he sees the light in Michelle’s eyes — my struggle, my worth as a woman.

This is another interesting email forward gone viral that continues to make its rounds. I have no idea what the state of the authors relationships were at the time of writing this…but I found this email forward extremely interesting for a number of reasons, one being the authors current status and all the hoopla surrounding him (I’m not going there).  Perhaps you’ve seen him on TBN, The Word Network, or Youtube.

This email forward does make some very good points.

Before I post the forward, I want to share my 2cents on “Seeking Mr. Right.”

1.  In my own experiences and what I’ve gathered from others, Mr. Right just shows up seemingly out of no where…you don’t have to find him, he’ll find you when you least expect it. 

2. Three of my friends were waiting for Mr. Right not too long ago…  All three of them are very Spiritual.  Even though they were not married, they all read and meditated on The Power of A Praying Wife.  All three of them got married practically back to back within a year or so of reading that book.  Is that a coincidence?  I don’t think so. (I too was married within a year of reading it)…I bring this up to say, that Mr. Right might need a praying woman, (not just a woman that prays for God to send her a man…but a woman that knows the power of prayer, as well knows how to pray for her man)… Marriage is a team work makes the dream work commitment that requires a rock solid foundation held together by God and made of unconditional love (AGAPE) and then some…

Sometimes it seems that some women get too caught up in looking for what a man brings to the table. We have all of these ideas about what a man is supposed to do…which I find extremely fascinating because majority of the people I know (self included) are from broken “dysfunctional” homes… So where do our ideas of what a man should be come from?  That’s a scary thought, and its an issue that we often deal with when preparing and introspecting!

There is nothing wrong with setting standards and expectations, but remember, men also have ideas about what a woman should bring to the table and they have standards and expectations too.  If who is bringing what to the table is important, then one must consider what both parties bring to the table,  what the union itself will bring to the table, and more importantly what God brings to the table?  (Just something to think about).

Marriage goes deeper than what you bring to the table though… Good looks, beauty, appearances, status, finances, education, and goals can change at the blink of the eye.  Those marriage vows say:

• For richer or poorer.
• In sickness and in health.
• Til death do you part.

That’s deep and its real.  Are you ready for that? What happens if that man comes to the table with so called financial stability and then gets laid off his job, then what?  (He could really use the power of a praying wife then).  What happens if that man falls ill or has a terrible accident leaving him a paralyzed?  (Maybe this seems far fetched to you, but it happened to Christopher and Dana Reeve).

3.  When desiring Mr. Right a woman must do an honest self evaluation to make sure she’s not Ms. Wrong.  I believe that preparation and introspection are absolute musts for Mr. Right to even show up.  Remember that song Bag Lady by Erykah Badu?  You have to make room for Mr. Right by getting rid of baggage.  The only way to get rid of baggage is through serious preparation and introspection which is a Spiritual process that touches mind, body, and soul.   Rather than focus on seeking Mr. Right, why not focusing on becoming Mrs. Right (thats a daily and life long work in progress lol).  I guess the bottom line is a woman has to get right in order to meet her Mr. Right…

note: right does not mean perfect   and isn’t possible that not every woman or man is necessarily meant to be married or is ready for marriage?

I can go on and on…but I think you understand where I’m coming from, here’s the email forward:

Subject: Pastor Jamal Bryant – “Seeking Mr. Right”

“Seeking Mr. Right”

I often warn women who are contemplating marriage to marry someone who can take care of them.
When a woman marries, it ought to be to someone who is capable of
taking her to the next level.

If she comes from poverty, there is not reason for her to get married
and still be impoverished.

The role of the man is to take her to another place.

When she gets married, she ought to dress better, drive better, live
better, and eat better, not constantly be in a struggle over where her
next meal is coming from. My grandmother used to say, “I can do bad all by
myself!”

For a woman desiring a mate, the objective, of course, would be to
find a Christian man, who’s settled, has goals, accomplishments and a
job.

But a goal-oriented and focused man can’t just be approached any kind
of way. So the woman who seeks this type of stability must make sure
that he stands out above the crowd:

1. Make sure your relationship with the Lord is strong and growing.

2. Make sure that you are presentable. Working from the inside out,
your presentation should be representative of both who you are and
whom you seek. Appearance is a reflection of how you see yourself.

3. Have the ability to hold an intelligent conversation.

4. And most importantly, allow the Holy Spirit to take control. You
don’t need to go after him. He’s going to come after you, because
after he sees and smells you and knows that you’re in his presence,
he’s going to want to know who you are!

I know there’s somebody reading this who has been chasing after the
“man of your dreams,” but God says, “Just sit still and allow patience
to have her perfect work through Me.”

Furthermore, it’s never a good idea to be too forward and too
aggressive. Attempting to win a man’s affection by jumping into bed
with him will only backfire and cause him to lose interest in ever
developing a lasting relationship. It causes him to lose respect for
you and question your character.

However, if he sees that you are dressed with quality, that you smell like you are somebody,
that you look like you’re doing fine without him, then that will attract the right attention from him.
He’ll have no choice but to give you his attention.

Stop looking so needy, climbing into bed, trying in vain to capture a man’s heart.

God woke me up in the middle of the night and said, “The same thing
that Naomi told Ruth to do is the same thing that I want them to do
for me.” God is so sick of saints coming to Him trying to get a
quickie and never romancing Him for Who he is – going to church screaming,
shouting and hollering, but hadn’t been intimate with God all week long!

Stop trying to treat God like a sugar daddy and start romancing Him with worship and praise:
“I’m yours Lord…everything I’ve got…everything I’m not!”

The God we serve, which is the God of love, demands and requires of us
foreplay before He gives us what we need. In the book of Ruth, the
mother-in-law tells Ruth, “You have to wash.” John 15:3 reminds us,
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. When
you sit in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you are taking a shower. When
you hear the unadulterated Word of God, then the dirt and grime that
you’ve accumulated all week long begins to wash off of you.

Ask God to “create in you a clean heart and renew a right spirit.”

Stand in the word. Then wait upon the Lord to renew your strength.
…If God has already sent you Mr. Right, pass this on to those who
are still waiting.

send this to all men for a good laugh and to all the women who can handle the truth!

A store that sells husbands has just opened in New York City , where a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates.

You may visit the store ONLY ONCE!

There are six floors and the attributes of the men increase as the shopper ascends the flights. There is, however, a catch … You may choose any man from a particular floor, or you may choose to go up a floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!

So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband…
On the first floor the sign on the door reads: Read the full story