"30 Years" of Hope

a big hello to everyone!

Normally, I would not post my personal life on Her Voice, but today I must share. Yesterday-February 21st- My parents celebrated their 30th anniversary! This is a milestone and I wanted to honor them on their special day. The reason I wanted to share with Her Voice Is, is because I believe it is important, if not vital, to share stories like my parents that marriage can work! The percentage of divorce in present day America can sometimes cause us to feel scared or even apprehensive about marriage. I also think it was important to share because it offers not only hope to those who have never been married but also to those who perhaps gone through a divorce. Today, I am here to offer hope to you and faith in marriage. Marriage can work. It can be good. It can be the best thing in the world.

Both my grandparents have had long marriages. My Mom's parents have been together 59 years. I made everyone laugh the other day because my husband and I will be celebrating 2 years of marriage on May 22. It made me laugh because when you think of 30 years and then 59 years being married to the same person my 2 years didn't seem like much of an accomplishment :O). My Mom and Dad have been through so much together. I have seen them stay committed to one another through good times and the less than perfect times and they always have shown me what true love is. They have shown me that it IS POSSIBLE for a man to respect, honor, love and cherish a woman and it IS POSSIBLE for a woman to do the same for a man and be happy. They have taught me that marriage is work, like many things in life.

My hope is that by sharing my parent's milestone you can feel encouraged and hopeful that true love does exists. That a long marriage is possible when it is the right marriage. That commitment is not something that is lost to our world, but rather it is something we all have inside of us. You have something great inside of you. You have purpose you have a calling. Never forfeit your dreams. Whether you are single, divorced, married for 2 years, 5 years or 60 years NEVER lose hope. Believe in love. Believe in the happily ever after-fairy tale ending. You friend are worth it. You are a treasure. You are valued. You deserve nothing but the best.

"Lucky"

             Lucky, by Alice Sebold, is the latest addition to my library. Let me tell you—as a woman, this book got me fired up! Learning of the author’s tragic rape made me ready to enroll in law school and go to work defending those women who are blamed and ostracized for a violent act they did not seek.

            The book is the true story of Alice Sebold, who was violently raped while walking home late one night after a study session during her college years. Most of the story shares her experiences after the rape, as she struggles to resume her life and deal with the stigma that surrounds young women who are victims of a violent crime such as this. She puts up a brave fight and eventually gets a conviction for the man who raped her. But the process nearly destroys her. My heart was captured by her struggle; I could empathize with the innocence of a young woman, destroyed by such injustice and fear. I cheered her on as she stumbled through the years, making mistakes, taking many steps backwards, but always fighting to understand herself.

            For me, Lucky is not about rape. It is about injustice and violence and a desperate need to be heard. Lucky made me angry—angry at injustice, angry at the violence that destroys innocence without cause. It triggered a passionate emotion in me such as I have not felt in a long time. A passionate need awoke in me to fight such injustices, to sacrifice my time, resources, and energy in order to make a difference. I believe in justice for the wronged, in healing for the hurting. I believe in it passionately.

Lucky shocked me awake. It woke me to a realization of truth that I had never known before. Violence and injustice is not going to stop until we do something about it. Until we get angry and until we join hands against evil, it’s not going away. But we have to get passionate, angry, motivated. So I challenge you to read Lucky for yourself and awake to the fight. And please, share your reactions with us on Her Voice Is! Let us know what you are passionate about. We are all in this together and would love to hear your stories!

-Brittany Howard

Click to Purchase "Lucky"

Let's Get Angry

Women might just have something to contribute to civilization other than their vaginas.

-Christopher Buckley, Florence of Arabia

When I saw this bold quote, I thought to myself Wow. That really has been a common viewpoint of women in general. I am not saying that EVERYONE thinks this way, but it is a common idea that women really are seen as their role of "child-bearer" and nothing else.  Don't get me wrong I believe this is one of the greatest roles of women. Strong, beautiful, capable-all of these qualities we as women posses and we are the only ones that can bring life into this world. That is powerful in itself...we give birth to presidents, scientists, heroes, teachers, mothers, fathers, brother, sisters, peacemakers, world changers. However, we must not forget that we can BE those things as well, not just give birth to them. The quote is from novelist Christopher Buckley whom wrote Florence of Arabia. Although this is not a book review, I will tell you that this book is a satire about the unfair treatment of women in the middle east (VERY good read). I find it compelling that this thought was from a man. It really gives me hope, as it should you. I just don't want the men to see this point and us as women remain blind and sedated to our true potentials as being answers.

Over the next couple weeks, you will see a theme emerging that has to do with Anger. Not scary anger or petty anger, but a healthy anger that stirs passion. We believe that when an emotion like anger is invoked things shift inside of us and we are given a strength and zeal to change things. Also, we here at HVI want to express that is is OK to get angry, you just have to get angry about the right things. To be honest, Her Voice was created when I became angry. I became angry about hunger. I became angry about hate towards women. I became angry about lack and poverty. I became angry at injustice. The Bible says:

      "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;

ensure justice for those being crushed.

Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless,

and see that they get justice. (Proverbs 31:8-9, NLT)

Friends. This is what burns inside me. This is what I live for. No matter what religion, race, culture or background, I am tired of watching my sisters suffer. We MUST love these women. We must begin to get angry about injustice. Sometimes we get so used to living in our own perfect world that we forget the problems that are out there. These are problems that can have answers. YOU are the answer. Over the next couple weeks HVI will be posting many different things that we hope will invoke a healthy anger in you. We hope that you will find strength and passion and a fire inside of you that awakens you from slumber.

This picture is from the protests in Egypt that started in January. You may have seen this picture floating around the net due to twitter and facebook but I had to share it here. If someone could capture true love in a photograph this is it. When I showed a friend this it brought tears to her eyes. This is a picture of Egyptian Christians protecting Egyptian Muslims so that they may pray.

All I can say is WOW.

This is how our hearts must beat. The Egyptian people were angry. Angry about a dictator that had ruined their country and left a people hurting, broken and hungry. They may believe different but these Christians knew true GOD love. They protected their brother and sisters-their fellow countrymen. In a time of great uprising they came together and were angry about one thing...injustice. It is time we put our differences aside and get angry and then fix the problem with love.

                                         

I am tired of being sedated. I am ready to rise up and change things. No more hate, no more injustice. WE CAN DO THIS. I know we can. It does not matter who the woman is. If she needs help we will get it for her. Anger can help us friend. We can use it to our advantage and raise awareness. So today I urge you. Find a problem and get angry about it then use that fire to set it ablaze, burning the problem to ash and leave an answer in its place. We are meant to be world changers. We are meant to use our VOICE to SPEAK UP for those who cannot speak for themselves. We are here to see that our sisters get JUSTICE.

You are strong. You are fierce. Your voice matters.

Keep checking back for more posts! And please, tell your Friends about Her Voice Is...Their story could change someones world. And don't forget your story can too.

-Bethany Morton-Gannaway 

Girls are Like Flowers

I am so excited to be posting this story for all of our followers to read! Thanks to all who have came by for a visit. Please tell all your friends and try to find us on facebook!

This is a very special post because today Her Voice Is shares a young 11 year old girl's heart. When asked what she would like women and girls to know that could help make a difference, she answered by writing this amazing piece. It is important to realize that we can learn from our sisters no matter what their age. Sometimes someone different from yourself can open your eyes to seeing things in a new light. After I read what she wanted to share, I marveled in the simplistic beauty of how she viewed things. I saw that as women we need to remember that our differences is what makes us beautiful and we must appreciate those differences in others.

This young girl writes a story with such a pure and heartfelt urgency to remember that there is something beautiful about all of us. I urge you today to see the beauty in yourself and also see the beauty in others. Say one thing out loud that you absolutely LOVE about yourself. It may seem difficult at first, but we as women need to shake off the shackles of low self-esteem and marvel in the fact that God made us in HIS image. Sister, you are beautiful. You are stunning. You are loved. I hope you enjoy this young girl's story as much as I have.

Flowers

Girls are like flowers. They are sweet, they smell good. And they are bright and beautiful. If you have a bouquet of them you see each one of them is unique. And all of them start as a dull seed but sooner or later it blooms into something amazing! They might become lilies or roses or daffodils. But the best thing is that none of them will be the same, that makes each of them unique!

~London Age 11

"Together" & "Women"

Hello Everyone!

All of us at Her Voice Is want to extend a warm welcome to you. This might be your first experience with our site. Thank you so much for taking the time to become part of the amazing things HVI is doing. Physically, all of us may be separated by countries and continents, but it is my hope that through the community we build by connecting here, we will create friendships and a strong support system that brings blessing and change to each others’ lives. So welcome. You are becoming part of something great. This is the first time I have been privileged to blog on HVI. I am led to share with you a burden that is resting upon my heart. I believe that in order to see the changes that we so desperately need in this world, our minds must become fully awake and aware of the issues at hand.

Within society today, do you ever hear the words “women” and “together” in the same sentence without a general cringe going around the room? Typically, if those words even come near each other, the result is a lengthy horror story of the disagreements and strife these women had when they tried to work together.
Let’s face it. Women do not get along very well. Put them together without careful planning, and the outcome usually is catty disagreements, hurt feelings, and a deeper sense that we can not trust our sisters. Honestly, I think women are more competitive than men; we are just more quiet about it. Men bond over sports, golf, and secret clubs, like lodges and such. Men know enough to separate their lives. They might compete with each other in business, sports, etc. but they recognize it as what it is--not really that important in the grand scheme of things.

If we, as women, open our eyes to the world around us, I think we’ll see that men and society encourage this war between us. Popular media promotes a whole host of evils--sexism, chauvinism, and the objectification of women--all of which force women to compete in order to keep up.

Yet, rather than blaming society or men for this problem, I honestly have to blame women for our own dilemma. As a collective group, we have permitted society to reach the state it is in. When is the last time you heard a group of women refute the lie that you are only beautiful if you are a size 0? When is the last time a group of women stood up together against violence toward women, or fought to protect each others’ rights? When women received the right to vote and were finally accepted in the workplace, it seems as if their passions for change stopped with this victory. We are passive now, apathetic, and honestly, just too caught up in a web of lies to fight for the same things we used to.

Yet, women are a powerful force. We are fierce, protective, passionate, and driven. Look at what we have accomplished. Women are powerful business owners, CEO’s, doctors, lawyers, scientists. We are more than capable of taking on the world of business and making our mark. But all of that is usually done alone, and at a great cost to our relationships with each other. For what business woman can afford to show kindness or love to her sisters?

I want you to take a moment now to imagine. Imagine what the world could be like if we as women chose today to set aside our disagreements and our petty differences, forgetting all of the past, and chose to come together as one entity for a cause much bigger than ourselves. I think women forget that there is a world outside of the office, a world that is ripe with need. Imagine that we, as a collective force, stepped up and put that same fierce passion that we use to compete with our sisters now, and threw ourselves into making the world a better place instead. What would the results be?

It is a belief that I hold strongly to, that if women are to band together against hunger, disease, violence, all of the evils that the world is rampant with, that a mighty change will occur. But these changes cannot come alone. One woman on her own is not powerful enough to make the differences that we need. But together, as one collective force, unfettered by strife and envy and bitterness, imagine the evils we could eradicate. The possibilities are endless.

I’ll leave you today with that thought. I know it’s a lot to ask--not every woman is going to be as passionate as you about changing the world together. Yet, take a few days to explore what your role could be, the amazing changes you could be part of, if only you didn’t have to worry about competing with every other woman in the world.

By: Brittany Howard
HVI Feature Writer and Co-Founder