I remember when a young man first ran after me.  I had just left church and was walking down the sidewalk in the snow when he ran out the church door and called my name. He asked me if he could take me home.  Later, as we stood by my front door talking as the snowflakes fell around us, my heart sang.  It felt as if something happened, almost touching a spiritual realm, so deep, affecting the heartbeat of my soul.  As I thought about it later I wanted to know why this was so profoundly significant… why that feeling of being sought after is so important to a woman and the idea of pursuit is so engrained in a man, why, through the ages, this feeling has been the object of poems and songs and dreams and whole nations rising and dividing.  It isn’t something just culturally conditioned.  It vibrates to the deepest engrained lifeblood of the earth.  What is its power? And, why does it seem so startling spiritual?

Could it be because it is the model of Christ and the Church?  Christ and you?  It’s true.  God has modeled peoples’ love, the natural design of responder and pursuer, after His own love for us.

Someone is running after you.  You are being sought out by the King.  He has destined you for a life of purpose, passion and power as you delight in His love for you.  You are His Cinderella.






I’d like to ask you some questions…. You don’t need to come up with an immediate answer in your mind.  They are designed more to be questions for pondering.  These are questions I’ve wondered in the past and I’m realizing I’m not the only one who has had these on my mind.  If I could I’d ask you to come with me to a corner café in a pretty town like Savannah, Georgia or the European café in downtown Kansas City where my cousin works.  We’d sit awhile and chat and stir the little mound of whipped cream around and around in our coffee as we reflected on these sorts of things. 

Do you ever wonder what it truly means to be feminine?

And, more deeply, what it means to be a woman?

Do you look in the mirror and just feel normal, wondering if you will ever be truly beautiful?  If you will ever be delighted in by someone?  Why is the desire to feel beautiful so important to us and so engrained in the heartbeat of our souls?  What causes this?

Why do little girls pretend to be princesses?  Why as older girls and women are we still captivated by real life princess stories?  Is it because deep down each of us were created to be a princess?

Do you ever wonder why you want to stand strong one moment enjoying fighting for justice, and yet want someone to hug you the next as they fight all your battles for you?

Can you be feminine and still collect slugs?  Is being feminine mean that one must like hair ribbons?

Do you sometimes feel that your worth comes from your achievements?  Is there something deep down within you that wishes - and dares to hope - that your true worth  actually comes your natural specialness of just being you, a beautiful image bearer of God?

Do you ever wonder if accepting your femininity means that you are admitting that you are less important than a guy? 

Why are you emotional?  Is this something to be ashamed of?

Why do your desires sometimes drive you crazy… how you ache so much to be cherished, delighted in and pursued?  Why oh why is this?

Why are you the way you are?  What does it mean to be a woman?



There are a whole lot of books out there about how to be “good.”  About the need to develop good character, about how to be the industrious Proverbs 31 Woman, about how to look nice on the outside.  Yet, is that it?  Is that the epitome of all it means to be a godly woman? 

Is there something more?  Why, in those moments in the darkness of the night when we are most real with ourselves do we long for something more?

Is there something deeper?  A missing facet to understand?  Possibly is there something about what it means to be a woman that we are not understanding?  Could it be something so awesome it can rock our world, our lives, our walks with God, and our dreams for the future?

DO YOU EVER WONDER…  What is femininity?  What is a woman?  What does it mean for you to be a woman of God?  What does it mean to be a woman of confidence, joy, passion, and beauty?  Are you that woman?  Can you be that woman?

WHO ARE YOU?

You are a princess.  A royal diadem.  With an awesome life to live, with a uniquely feminine heart that is engrained in the core of your being and, from which comes, as you delight in Jesus, strength, security and purpose.

Your feminine heart is a beautiful thing but it takes wisdom to really understand it.  And the world tries to confuse the issue… making one feel ashamed instead of joyful, confused instead of secure. 

Young women try to handle their hearts in many ways.  Think about it.  Some deny their desires for beauty, deep fulfillment, purpose, romance, rest and adventure and condemn themselves, thinking that it must be ungodly to be excited about thinking about things such as that.  They may have been taught that they shouldn’t be so idealistic and should become a practical normal good citizen of society who doesn’t have great expectations about anything.  If they allow those feelings of desiring to be the sought after beauty of a fairy tale to surface, it must mean that they are being terrible young ladies and aren’t being content.  (Yet, could there be a possibility that one can be content while single yet also delight in the idea of someday being married?  Can one be content with doing the practical important every day facets of life, yet also have a good longing to be used more and more deeply for the Kingdom?)  Many young women are taught to be tough on the outside and not honest with how they are feeling.  The more pain they feel the more they take on a tough exterior.  Some young women try to act on the desires of their hearts by trying to take control of their circumstances and futures instead of trusting God as the One who knows and will provide for their deepest needs.  There are many ways women try to handle their hearts.

A very rare few truly understand and embrace their design, seeing the power and beauty in the way their souls have been crafted in God’s image for His glory.  And that, that wonderful point of understanding and embracing their design, is our prayer for every young woman and is our prayer for our ministry.  Our greatest desire is that we might be a vessel through whom women can be affirmed in who God has created them to be, understanding the significance and importance of their femininity, and, through that, gaining the freedom to embrace the vital mission God has given them for their individual lives.

~ Kathryn