The Sorrow of the Daughters; My Resolve

Last night I had a heart-wrentching conversation with a wonderful friend of mine. She is a beautiful and capable woman, who does so much good, but she told me of a secret wound—a wound caused by her father.

Without details, she explained how her father had filled her childhood with abuse, making her feel unworthy, bad, ugly and worthless. Like a thief robbing the treasury of a palace, he stole the precious jewels that make up a whole and happy woman; leaving her alone, destitute, empty and with an innate distrust of men. She has to re-learn how to receive love from men, because for so long “love” meant pain and deception.

How my heart ached as I heard this wonderful daughter of God explain her pain.

I was reminded of the words of Jacob:

“For behold, I the Lord, have seen the sorrow, and heard the mourning of the daughters of my people in the land of Jerusalem, yea, and the lands of my people…And I will not suffer that the cries of the fair daughters of this people…shall come up unto me against the men of my people, saith the Lord of Hosts” (Jacob 2:31-32).

A man is a scalple, John Eldridge says, extremely sharp and can be used to heal or to hurt. With my friend, her father had done the latter. I was filled with indignation and disgust; how could someone call himself a man and hurt a daughter of God? How could he look in the mirror and call himself a man?

What cowardice! With so much evil on every side to fight and he choses to hurt a woman. Men, by nature, should use their natural power and strength to protect the precious porcelain of feminity, not to send it crashing to the floor.

Let true manhood fill the earth! Let the boys grow up and learn to love and to serve, to sacrifice and to fight against evil. I don’t want palcid, nice men, I want good, powerful men. Men who are warrriors who fight evil, not cowards who pick on women.

I resolved, once again, never to be that abusive man. I never want a daughter of God to have to raise up cries against me. I am resolved to protect, provide and preside, and never to manipulate, coerce or abuse.