A Life- a Legacy...

Recently, I have begun re-reading one of my favorite books, "A Chance to Die" by Elisabeth Elliot, which is a biography about the life of Amy Carmichael. The writing style is not necessarily my favorite but the amount of information and insight that can be learned about Amy Carmichael is fantastic and engaging. Included in the book are many personal accounts and letters from Amy, helping one to see clearly what she was thinking and contemplating throughout different experiences in her life.
While reading I kept thinking, "What has happened to all the strong women?" Where are the women like our mother's, like our grandmother's, and like our grandmother's mothers? There is a strength that can be seen throughout tragedies and difficult circumstances in Amy's life but I have to wonder- where are women like Amy in my generation? Where are the women who will claim as their motto in every difficult situation that it is a chance to die to myself and a chance to live for Christ? This was Amy's theme and I think in many ways it was also the author, Elisabeth Elliot's theme because she suffered through the loss of her husband but later would find that God is strong enough to finish the plan He had begun. He used the death of her husband to bring many people to the knowledge of our beautiful Savior- Jesus Christ.
There is also a sweet lady in our church here in Costa Rica who told me a story about when she was carrying loads of laundry down to the river to wash with all of her children and while pregnant. When she got to the river she slipped and began to experience incredible pain in her abdomen, she hid herself behind a tree, gave birth to a tiny little baby that would never have a chance to take his first breath, wrapped him in a towel- finished washing the laundry and then would later bury the child with the help of her mother. After hearing such a story- how can one not pause and contemplate what great pain but what great strength?
Over and over I could recount stories from my Mother and from my Grandmother's generation- my Grandmother who had to struggle through the Great Depression and wonder how she and her family would eat with food being so scarce. Where, Where are the strong women of my generation? I'm so happy that facebook didn't exist when I was child or I can only imagine the amount of stories my mother could have posted about me- from splitting my lip open when I was little- and on Mother's Day of all days, to the fighting that would go on between the three of us as children. I have no doubt that my mother was exhausted or that there were days when she probably felt like breaking down but I can't name one- why? because all I knew as a child was that my mom loved me. I knew an incredible amount of security from my mother because I never heard her complain about me. Certainly there were exclamations of - "Danielle, why haven't you washed the dishes yet, like I asked you to do an hour ago?"- but even in that she was teaching me to help and be a servant to my family, to be willing to help others. My mother knew something that many women I think are missing in my generation, she knew an inner strength and peace. In times of doubt there wasn't a website to google or a post to put on facebook to ask hundreds of "friends" for their opinion. The only opinion they had was their own- and maybe a Doctor's advice but mostly they had to trust the inner wisdom that God gave them as mothers.
So where are the strong women of my generation? Women like Mary the mother of Jesus who had to carry an incredible amount of pain throughout her life as many believed she had birthed a child out of wedlock, that she had been unfaithful to her espoused husband, Joseph. You try explaining the miracle of the virgin birth to your friends and then think about how Mary must have felt. Yet, Mary had an inner strength just like great women of the faith before her, such as, Ruth, Esther, Bathsheeba.
So here is my challenge- why not read about these strong women and pray that God will begin to strengthen our generation. Let's not give in so easily to the philosophy of this age- that there are no absolute truths and that every problem we have is because of the environment we lived or were raised in. Certainly, many have experienced difficulties but let's look once again for the strength that can come only from Jesus Christ. He is our ultimate example and it is through him that we must receive this strength and peace.