a daughter's heart

Lately, God has been putting such a burden on my heart for different women's issues lately: abuse, cutting, domestic violence, trafficking, etc. I know Papa wants to restore and renew! So... i thought I would blog about just a few different things that have lately come to my attention

This makes me so proud of my school! Recently the Greek Community put together an even called "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes." The event drove nearly 200 college guys to buy size 14 high-heels and make a 1 mile march against domestic violence! Check out the full story at the link above.

I recently saw a music video my Red Jumpsuit Apparatus called Face Down. It's a song about domestic violence. The lyrics speak for themselves: "Do you feel like a man when you push her around?"

Another music video--one of my favorites--is by a group called Between the Trees. The song is The Way She Feels. It's a song based on and featuring Renee, the girl who inspired "To Write Love on Her Arms." For those who haven't already read her incredible story, you can read it here.

One final video, and this one is hard to watch, is an domestic-violence awareness video that Keira Knightley and Joe Wright (Director of Pride and Prejudice and The Atonement) collaborated on. The video is graphic as it shows Keira getting beaten up but offers such an incredible, unforgettable message.

This blog may be a sort of "downer," but we have to wake up! So I invite you to take this little journey and see if it touches your heart and perhaps gives you an answer. Please leave comments with your thoughts on these issues!

"Alas, when once a woman has forgot the respect due to herself, by yielding to the solicitations of illicit love, they lose all their consequence, even in the eyes of the man whose art has betrayed them, and for whose sake they have sacrificed every valuable consideration...

"Believe me, many an unfortunate female, who has once strayed into the thorny paths of vice, would gladly return to virtue, was any generous friend to endeavor to raise and re-assure her; but alas! it cannot be, you say; the world would deride and scoff. Then let me tell you, 'tis a a very unfeeling world, and does not deserve half the blessings which a bountiful Providence showers upon it.

"Oh, thou benevolent Giver of all good! how shall we erring mortals dare to look up to thy mercy in the great day of retribution, if we now uncharitably refuse to overlook the errors , or alleviate the miseries, of our fellow-creatures." - Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple

Oh Daddy, I love your little girls! What I would give to bandage the broken hearts, black eyes, bruised arms, and bleeding wrists! My wish is to see girls who are more loved than they are insecure! I long for the opportunity to tell a girl that she can walk away, to tell her she's worth more than this, to let her know it's not her fault! If only I could give a piece of Daddy's heart to each and every one of these priceless broken girls!

quotes and lyrics

"Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?"

"You know when I said I knew little about love? That wasn't true. I know a lot about love. I've seen it, centuries and centuries of it, and it was the only thing that made watching your world bearable. All those wars. Pain, lies, hate... It made me want to turn away and never look down again. But when I see the way that mankind loves... You could search to the furthest reaches of the universe and never find anything more beautiful. So yes, I know that love is unconditional. But I also know that it can be unpredictable, unexpected, uncontrollable, unbearable and strangely easy to mistake for loathing, and... What I'm trying to say, Tristan is... I think I love you. Is this love, Tristan? I never imagined I'd know it for myself. My heart... It feels like my chest can barely contain it. Like it's trying to escape because it doesn't belong to me any more. It belongs to you. And if you wanted it, I'd wish for nothing in exchange - no gifts. No goods. No demonstrations of devotion. Nothing but knowing you loved me too. Just your heart, in exchange for mine." -Yvaine

"If it doesn't break... if.. it.. doesn't break your heart it isn't love..." - switchfoot

"Allelujah, I'm caving in...

Allelujah, I'm in love again...

Allelujah, I'm a wretched man...

Allelujah, every breath is a second chance..." - switchfoot

"Your life is an occasion. Rise to it." - Mr. Magorium

"We must face tomorrow, whatever it may hold, with determination, joy and bravery" - Mr. Magorium

"Now we wait." - Mahoney

"No. We Breathe. We Pulse. We Regenerate. Our hearts beat. Our minds create. Our souls ingest. Thirty-seven seconds, well used, is a lifetime." - Mr. Magorium

"I can feel you all around me

Thickening the air I'm breathing

Holding on to what I'm feeling

Savoring this heart that's healing" - flyleaf

"You think this is just a magazine, hmm? This is not just a magazine. This is a shining beacon of hope for... oh, I don't know... let's say a young boy growing up in Rhode Island with six brothers pretending to go to soccer practice when he was really going to sewing class and reading Runway under the covers at night with a flashlight. You have no idea how many legends have walked these halls. And what's worse, you don't care. Because this place, where so many people would die to work you only deign to work."

"I've never seen a monument erected to a pessimist." - Paul Harvey

"A poem needs understanding through the senses… The point of diving in a lake is not immediately to swim to the shore, but to be in the lake—to… luxuriate in the sensation of water. You do not “work” the lake out. It is an experience beyond thought. Poetry soothes and emboldens the soul to accept mystery."

"This world is a great sculptor's shop. We are the statues and there is a rumor going around the shop that some of us are someday going to come to life..." - C. S. Lewis

"I will take the ring, though I do not know the way..." - Frodo Baggins

"He sits on His throne on high. He sees us all--and He knows what He is doing in the midst of each and every star in the heavens..." - Victor Hugo

"Women don't want to hear what men think. Women want to hear what they think in a deeper voice." - Bill Cosby

"Perhaps kissing is the best thing for crying, but it will not always stop it..." - George MacDonald