Call for the Wailing Women: A Wail for Our Daughters
There will be no Wailing Women Workshop this month. Instead, join us the second Saturday and Sunday of this month for our Annual Women’s Weekend (July 14-15)!
As teens, many of our daughters will face several challenges, some of which include: low self-esteem, body image and self-acceptance, confusion about direction and future, and friendship dynamics. They will need our help and guidance to navigate through those unsettling years of their lives. In addition, it is essential that they develop a sense of who they are and who they desire to be in the world.
Adolescence is a transitional time for young girls. They go from being young girls to young ladies. Changes in their bodies take place for which they may not be ready. They become more emotional and may not even realize why. The battle then begins with their mothers about how many allowances are to many allowances. They want to do and try new things to keep up with their friends and pseudo-friends on social media.
Low self-esteem was one of the things I battled with throughout my teen years. I compared myself to the images I saw on television and magazines and found myself sorely lacking. In my culture hair was your pride and glory, the longer the better. To my chagrin, my mother had mine cut into a short afro which added to my already plummeting self-esteem.
Comparisons was another issue which plagued my family; I was always compared to other female members of the family about how I did not measure up. This was another nose-dive for my body image and self-acceptance. Having the privilege of raising four daughters. I was careful not to allow my family or other people compare my daughters to others. Low self-esteem is something young girls battle with anyway thanks to media, why contribute to this tragedy.
When girls are younger they tend to adapt easier to changes in friendship dynamics, but as they get older, things like having to move and leave their friends behind tend to affect them deeply. Additionally, having conflicts with their friends, feeling betrayed by them, or getting into negative competition can launch them into depression or other erratic behaviors.
One of the greatest issues I see with our girls now is their confusion about who they want to be and what they want to do in life. When they are young they easily tell you what they want to be when they grow up. As they get older it becomes more difficult for them. I do understand that there is a great pressure in asking someone what they want to do for the rest of their lives when they are only eighteen, but this is the way of our society and we must prepare our daughters to confront it.
There are so many other issues that plague our daughters, and these are only a few. We must remember to love and guide them through some of these turbulent years. Let’s take up a wailing for them this month that the Lord may lead, guide and make them realize that they are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of our Creator.