On this Mother's day, consider these wise encouragements from a woman about women and how they can gain more and more strength, dignity, wisdom, kindness, joy, creativity, and excitement.
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"Perhaps it is no wonder that women were the first at the cradle and last at the cross.
"They had never known a man like this man, [like Jesus].
"There has never been another like Him: a prophet and a teacher
who never nagged at them,
who never flattered or coaxed or patronized,
who never made chauvinistic jokes about them,
who never treated them as either "the women, God help us," or "the ladies, God bless them,"
who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension,
who took their questions and arguments seriously,
who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female,
who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend,
who took them as he found them and was completely un-self-conscious.
"There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole gospel that gets its pungency from female perversity.
"Nobody could guess from the words and deeds of Jesus that there was anything funny about a woman's nature.
"They were... drawn to someone who, because of his love for them, conferred strength and dignity upon them and made them people of wisdom and kindness.
"These qualities come from Christ. It is ultimately the long, wonderful, saving work of Jesus to make us free to be joyful, creative, and excited about life."
Dorothy Sayers, Are Women Human?, 1971.
***
"Perhaps it is no wonder that women were the first at the cradle and last at the cross.
"They had never known a man like this man, [like Jesus].
"There has never been another like Him: a prophet and a teacher
who never nagged at them,
who never flattered or coaxed or patronized,
who never made chauvinistic jokes about them,
who never treated them as either "the women, God help us," or "the ladies, God bless them,"
who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension,
who took their questions and arguments seriously,
who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female,
who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend,
who took them as he found them and was completely un-self-conscious.
"There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole gospel that gets its pungency from female perversity.
"Nobody could guess from the words and deeds of Jesus that there was anything funny about a woman's nature.
"They were... drawn to someone who, because of his love for them, conferred strength and dignity upon them and made them people of wisdom and kindness.
"These qualities come from Christ. It is ultimately the long, wonderful, saving work of Jesus to make us free to be joyful, creative, and excited about life."
Dorothy Sayers, Are Women Human?, 1971.
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