Hello!
A year ago in March, I did a four-part series asking women in my life to share and answer the question: When was the moment you realized you were becoming a woman? This project was fun, insightful, and inspiring and I am grateful of the women who said yes to sharing their stories. My soul has been stirred, impacted, and inspired by how God has touched and changed their lives! This project has impacted me so much that I began to consider how interesting it would be to feature more stories from voices other than my own, which ultimately led to the idea of launching the Fully Man Series, in which men in my life would answer the question, When was the moment you realized that you were becoming a man?
I am incredibly grateful for the vulnerability, ease, safety, and counsel that relationships with men have been for me. My dad and brother are significant male influences in my life because of their willingness to love, encourage, and respect who I am and were able to offer their strengths in my weaknesses. They taught me how to be strong, tough, and knowledgeable in things like softball/baseball, changing a tire, fixing furniture, and parallel parking (trust me, if you've seen Tuxedo, starring Jacki Chan, that's how good I drive *pops collar*).
I understand that this narrative isn't the same for many women. I have close girl friends that have confided and shared their experiences with me about men who have manipulated, objectified, and/or abandoned them, but I still hope and contend that these women experience and know healthy, safe, and trustworthy relationships with men. My hope with the Fully Man Series is to build-up and shed light on stories that express their individual journey of what it is like becoming a man. Believe me, this will be as much of a learning process for me, which is why I was incredibly interested in learning, listening, and partnering with my fathers and brothers in Christ as a woman. For my ladies reading this, I hope you keep an open mind and heart in learning and understanding snippets of what manhood may look like. And if you are a guy reading this, I hope this helps and allows you to pull on men in your life to talk about any of the topics discussed in these essays.
Theses essays are by no means the epitome of what manhood should be, but a discourse in which like life, is a process. The world is changing, growing, and searching for something bigger than ourselves. I am incredibly grateful of the way God has brought these men in my life and I am excited to feature their voices. These men are trees that have set deep roots into the land that God has given them to expand His kingdom and I have the honor and freedom to enjoy the protection of their shade. I hope that the men and women, who read these posts understand that we are in this together. Thank you for taking the time to be a part of the process and get a glimpse of the voices that I care so much about!
With Love,
Jacky
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