This post was originally posted in 2017.
As women in the United States we can give thanks for the progress that has been made in women’s rights and opportunities. My maternal grandmother and paternal great-grandmothers immigrated to Michigan from Finland. With great effort they raised families while managing subsistence farms. My paternal grandmother wanted to go to elementary school but was needed at home.
I am thankful for these women!
My opportunities are much greater than theirs were. I have benefited from their sacrifices. I went to college and earned a degree as did my siblings. I have had the opportunity to visit a number of countries.
I recently finished reading I Came a Stranger: The Story of a Hull-House Girl*. Hilda Satt Polachek came to the United States from Poland as a child. Within two years her of family’s arrival, her father died. Hilda’s mother was faced with raising the family in a new country. Hilda went to work in a knitting factory at the age of thirteen to help support the family. She received help and encouragement from the Hull House women.
In the United States we have made great progress, and we need to acknowledge this. Women have equal rights and opportunities.
Currently more young women are going to college than young men. Click here for the research.
I am thankful for God’s word and the assurance that He loves me, a woman. Jesus demonstrated his respect, his concern and his equal treatment of women.
I am thankful for my church and the freedom to worship that we have in the United States. Many women in the world do not have this freedom or the same opportunities.
Gratitude leads to a sense of joy.
Psalm 34 has some verses of praise and thanksgiving.
I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall be continually in my mouth. I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Psalm 34: 1,4
What can you give thanks for?
*Hilda Satt Polacheck edited by Dena Polacheck Epstein, I Came a Stranger: The Story of a Hull-House Girl, University of Illinois Press, 1989
UPDATE 3/7/2020: As I give thanks for God’s love and design for women, I realize that many women are abused. The reality of human trafficking became clear as I read The Third Daughter by Talia Career. How can this evil be stopped?
UPDATE 3/8/21 As migrants seek to enter the U.S. southern border I wonder how many young women will be trafficked. It is a great evil. I pray that congress will fix our immigration laws for greater safety of both migrants and citizens of our country.
We have a new challenge with the White House executive order to allow biological males to compete in women’s sports. I pray that our government will acknowledge the science, the physiology of the human body. Men and women are physically different, but loved equally by God.
UPDATE 3/8/22 This year my concern is for the girls growing up. The pandemic policies have interrupted learning and forced masking. Public schools are moving toward teaching a radical view of sexuality that is at odds with God’s design. As parents and grandparents we need to speak up and protect the young girls (and boys)! May God help us.
