Who are the women I look up to? Who are the women who inspire me? These two questions have very different answers and attitudes. Who do I look up to, I guess I would say those who have achieved great things or overcome significant obstacles. Who inspires me and has a true influence on my life? Women who have shown me the smiling face of God’s love.
While looking up to women around us is a fine thing to do if they have proven to be trustworthy. The above questions tend to breed a striving or working towards being good enough or worthy. Who hasn’t looked across the classroom, yoga studio, or pew to find a woman that they perceive to be looking, doing, or being better than themselves? But this always leaves a sour taste in the mouth, either of pride or self-pity.
When I think of women that have inspired me to model my life after theirs it is a very different taste. It is sweet, bringing with it freedom and hope. Many women both young and old come to mind when I think about who inspires me. They have done so in one of two ways.
Women can smile love into our lives
Many women I have known including my mum and other mother figures have developed a way of interacting that lifts the spirit. It is as if on an unconscious level I could hear them saying, ‘I think you are just great, I cannot wait to see who you will become and what you will do.’ Whenever I remember my mum I think of Zephaniah 3:17:
The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.
It is as if these Christ-like women radiate loving attention and affirmation into our lives. It is through their kind interactions with us that they lovingly mould out attitudes and beliefs, enabling us to grow into our character through Christ. These women have inspired me to reject the negative self-talk and fear of failure. They encourage me to live authentically in the knowledge that I am deeply and truly loved.
Women can live life with a smile knowing that God loves them fully.
While some other women have influenced me with very little personal interaction. They have simply lived claiming God’s promises. They exude that they claim God is on their side and transforming the way they live, making them bold, while kind, firm and yet not hard. These women show me what trusting in God can look and feel like for a woman of God.
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.
John 7:38
I want to be that kind of woman. And I believe it is a private, quiet work. The women who inspire me, like Christ, have a habit of making quiet time with God, allowing their smiles to seed and grow.
WRITER: Chelsea Ralph, attends Lilydale SDA Church in Victoria.