Womanhood dump #2: Femininity

I also have a lot to say.

Main Entry: wom·an
Pronunciation: \ˈwu̇-mən, especially Southern ˈwō- or ˈwə-\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural wom·en \ˈwi-mən\
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English wīfman, from wīf woman, wife + man human being, man
Date: before 12th century

1 a : an adult female person b : a woman belonging to a particular category (as by birth, residence, membership, or occupation) —usually used in combination
2 : womankind
3 : distinctively feminine nature : womanliness

Being womanly, pursuing this...THING, this WOMANLINESS that supposedly we must possess, can be as elusive a mission as finding a candy wrapper under my bed.
it just isn't that simple.
There's a lot of crap that's collected around the real thing, a lot of misunderstandings, a lot of confusion, the media squirting collagen and implants and diets into the vision we have of Woman. We are going to have to dust off a lot of what the world has stuck on to this Woman thing and see what it really is.

BEAUTY
Being womanly, by the world's standards, is mostly about being good-looking.
Stealing some bad reasoning from 10th grade logic:

If all real women are perfect [LIE]
and I am not perfect
I am not a real woman

When your personal beliefs about who you are stem from a lie that Satan has put in the world, it hurts! The way you see yourself will be twisted, because you're looking into Satan's funhouse mirror. (He has a lot.) The fact of the matter is,

The King is enthralled by your beauty. --psalm 45:11

I think we tend to underestimate God sometimes. It's also hard to listen to His strong truth when the noise of a million billboards and commercials and magazines and even people we know can be so loud. But when you hold them up against each other, God's truth will always ring true.
Confession time. I used to hate myself. I did not like my body, I did not like my hair, how I acted...it went on and on. It was that still, small voice that finally got through my [rather thick] head that I was not ugly, worthless, fat, or stupid.
And once I bothered to believe that, I was joyful.
I still have [major] issues about liking my personality. That is between me and God.

Conclusion. Let's face it. We are not perfect. I am [definitely] not perfect, and I'm sorry, but neither are you. Let's delight in a God that loves us FREAKIN' ANYWAY!
And let's celebrate these shells we have for a few years. They are special creations that we're only going to live in for a few more years.

OUR HEARTS
We have special ones.
What do I mean? I mean that we were created to fill a void.

Adam steps forth, the image of God. Nothing in creation even comes close. Picture Michelangelo’s David. He is… magnificent. Truly the masterpiece seems complete. And yet, the Master says that something is not good, not right. Something in missing… and that something is Eve… And she, too, bears the image of God but in a way that only the feminine can speak. What can we learn from her? God wanted to reveal something about Himself, so he gave us Eve… Eve is created because things were not right without her. Something was not good. …Something is missing? What could it possibly be? Eve. Woman. Femininity. Wow. Talk about significance. --captivating

We are what was missing on the other side of the spectrum. What exactly is that? Gentleness. Delicacy. Strength. The kinds that complement a man's.

A few years ago, this is where I would've stopped reading.
Joanna's inner thoughts, circa 2007: "Complement? Really? You mean I'm not good enough on my own?" *bristle bristle *
Complement does not mean you're only worth something with a man. It means you were designed with pieces missing, so that in marriage you can work as a cohesive unit. Like two Pokemon Bakugan pairing up to form a deadlier, cooler robot. [So cool.]

It also means you were born to represent God's feminine side. Man represents God's leadership, strength, and powerful love. Women represent other stuff.
"That other stuff" is where we tend to get confused. Mostly because this happened:

...and we lost sight of this:

I don't know about you, but the Proverbs 31 woman is nothing to sniff at.

More to follow.