This summer I found myself sitting in a dark theater with my husband and a hundred or so other Americans looking for some entertainment on a Friday night. However, about 10 minutes into Wonder Woman the movie, I started crying. By the time Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) was fearlessly forging her way through “no man’s land” with nothing but her shield, her sword, and her courage, I was pretty much sobbing to the point where my man leaned in and whispered, “Are you gonna make it?” and pushed butter-soaked napkins to my cheeks.
In between my big fat tears, I nudged back, “Yeah, I am gonna make it.”
Maybe this movie did not move everyone the way it moved me. Perhaps it is my personal journey that made me weep, but I have a feeling that the life and characteristics of Diana Prince resonated on a spiritual and emotional level with more women than just me.
This Wonder Woman was unlike any female character I had ever seen before, and watching her life
story unfold was like watching my own story (only with way better costumes and special effects). This portrayal of Wonder Woman is what a real woman looks like: strong, brave, fearless, while fully embracing and without diminishing all the other aspects of being female: softness, kindness, compassionate, and yes, beautiful.
When Diana simply proclaimed, “I AM WILLING TO FIGHT FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT FIGHT FOR THEMSELVES,” I nearly jumped out of my seat cheering! This is where our nurturing meets the warrior in all women. As women, we will hug, kiss, and wipe away tears all day long. However, it takes one fell swoop against our children or those whom we value and cherish for us to spring into attack mode, wielding sword and shield.
Like most women, I have faced some dark moments in my life. Widowed young and a single mother of two small girls for years, I took my duty as an example of womanhood very seriously. In fact, from the time my girls were very small before they left the house for school or to go anywhere, I always told them, “Be beautiful and powerful without regret.”
They heard it so often that when they grew into young adults, they both had it tattooed on their bodies. It would appear my simple phrase to encourage them in who they were, literally became seamlessly woven into their sense of self.
For those who haven’t seen it, when the movie opens, we see a wild little girl who knows who she is different. It is clear she knows that she was created for something a little bigger than the status quo, although she does not realize just how big yet. At this point, the older women of her tribe step onto the scene. This was where I began to connect so deeply with the film. I loved that the senior women actually look their age in this film— no taut faces, no Botox, no fillers. They looked normal—the way mature females are supposed to look. After all, women that have lived on the earth awhile and have collected some valuable wisdom rarely have the smooth skin of a 20-year-old!
Older women are called to train the next generation— not just our own daughters, but all of the world’s daughters. They need our guidance, our insight, and our stories. So often we hear about the importance of fathers, and I could not agree more, but let’s not forget the importance of strong mothers. This generation of young women need to see older ladies being women, and they need to know this journey will leave battle scars in the form of stretch marks and wrinkles. This should serve as our proud proof that we have accomplished something real, not something from which we should carry shame. As females, we have given life and fought to sustain life, and it has cost us something. Now we are older, wiser, and in our own way, more beautiful than ever.
As the movie plays out, Diana saves the life of the male lead in the film, and he was visibly grateful. In this moment, she showed us what women do: we save the men we love. How many times have you heard a man say (my own husband included), “She saved my life,” when speaking about his woman, his mother, his aunt, or his grandmother.
I believe men and women are created to be equal partners in this life, each bringing a different perspective, strengths, skills and knowledge. When we acknowledge the differences and work to fill in each other’s gaps, we form a team that is unstoppable, instead of enemies working against each other. We need each other, and we make each other better.
If being a feminist means that women are equal to men and should have the same rights and pay as men, then I am in. However, if it means bashing men or hating men for being born male, then I am out.
Dysfunction and brokenness between men and women bring a war that no one wins, while acknowledging differences with humility brings in its place the most beautiful of all dances.
Women are incredibly strong beings. We can grow humans, expel them into the world with our strength, and keep them alive with our breasts. When our men need to be saved, we gladly reach out our arms to catch them, speaking the truth of who they are to them over and over again until they remember it for themselves.
Diana did not despise men, but she knew what her task was and she had a laser-like focus upon it. Diana was called to take down the god of war, and she emulated the persistence in which we are called to be god-killers too. Women are god-killers. When a woman goes to war in prayer over the strongholds on a land or a generation for her man or for her children, there is a change in the heavenlies that will not happen any other way. We were created to take up our shield and sword and to break through “no man’s land,” to advance the Kingdom, to fight for those who cannot protect themselves.
While we cannot downplay the importance of the covering, protection, and provision of a good man, we will not sit around and wait for it to arrive into our lives. When that beautiful and righteous covering is not present we will continue on our journey alone. We will fight the good fight, and we will stay until the end. Women generally do not bail on the people who need them when the going gets tough. We tend stay and fight. We are willing to die for the cause.
The rise in media over the last few years of TV shows depicting women as shallow, spiteful, weak, and unable to control their emotions has been disheartening to say the least. For years, seeing ads for movies showing women volunteering for sexual and physical abuse under the guise that it’s what romance and love looks like is disturbing. The fact that these movies are written and produced by women, and women pay to see them, well, that is baffling.
The world does not need to see more crowds of angry, bitter, and hateful women. It is time to show them what strong, capable, and intelligent women, full of grace and beauty, look like.
I plan to keep living my life that way, and I plan to die being known as a woman who embraced my call as a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a mentor to younger women. Mostly, I want to be remembered as a woman with a feminine soul and the heart of a warrior.
I am going to war for those that are dying and those that cannot defend themselves. I am looking for an army to join me. Any other Wonder Women out there ready to fight and to love like no one else can?
I will be sharing my personal story on October 9th at The Call/Rise UP – please register below.
Join me in Washington D.C. this October 6th through the 9th to Rise up with thousands of other praying women! Register here today!!
