I'm getting stronger everyday

On a recent episode of a TV show that I watch occasionally there was a scene between a woman and her mentor.  The mentor was in the hospital and was imparting some final words of wisdom on her mentee.  The mentor was telling of hardship she had experienced due to an unplanned pregnancy and the heartbreak that comes with choosing to give her child up for adoption.  The story was gut wrenching, hard to handle even though I knew it was fictional.  Then the younger woman, familiar with heartbreak herself, replied to her mentor with the statement I’m sure we’ve all asked of those who have walked the hard road, “I don’t know how you found the strength.”
“Honey, we’re women.  The strength finds us.”
This statement rang so true to me.  So divinely placed in this 43 minute episode of dramatic interpretation of our world, for me to hear during this week of my life.
Men seem to be born with strength.  They seem to have it ingrained in their DNA, at least those born into our western society.  I’m sure there is an argument to be made for the fact that this is more a societal perception than an actual fact but nonetheless, they seem to carry it with their mere presence.
Women on the other hand, they seem to be more delicate in all ways.  There is this perception that women are not strong, they are frilly and weak – in need of protection.  There are songs about it, movies about it.  I would never say that women aren’t strong.  But I think that this particular kind of strength, the strength to overcome heartbreak and seek redemption in its place is God given.  In other words, the strength finds us when we need it.
We can’t conjure this kind of strength, it is sent to us by the Spirit and we are mere receivers of it.
I come from a family of strong women, on both sides.  Women who have fought soul crushing heartbreak and came out still standing.  And I guarantee that each of them would say they could not explain where the strength came from in those moments.  They know that they could never have found it on their own, they would say that God saved them when they needed saving the most.
I can recognize this because I see it in my own life too.  I see moments where I could not even see straight or walk straight.  But I see how I was lead from those moments by the hand of a God who loves stronger than any force of this world.  And that hand is the one I cling to, that strength has found me and prepared me for life in this broken world.
This strength seems so foreign, and you don’t even really notice that it found you until you’re on the other side.  And it’s a beautiful thing.  I think this could easily explain how God used so many women in the Bible do to incredible things, like birth the savior of our world or lay a baby among reeds hoping against hope that he will be saved.  God gives strength to women to do great things because they cannot do them alone.
Honey, we’re women.  The strength finds us.