How have your trials made you stronger? When I was 15 my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time. It is a surreal thing to witness your mother, your caretaker, become so completely helpless and dependent on others for all of her needs. The day that she went into remission I remember every detail, from where I was sitting down to what the weather was like. As do I the day she told me the cancer returned. I was newly married, had an infant and lived a state away. For the next four years, I would travel back and forth to San Diego for weeks at a time to be with my mother and soak up as much time as I could. She passed away in 2012. This trial has continued to shape and strengthen me in ways I, at the time, could have never imagined. It strengthened my sympathy and allowed me to support and be a strength for others when they are going through difficult seasons. It has strengthened my understanding of God's goodness even when circumstances are anything but. It has strengthened my ability to have peace in the midst of anxious times. All of these things have led to an overall strengthening of who I am as a wife, mother and woman because I am able to offer myself more fully to those around me.
Who is a female role model in your life and why? My mentor Mary has been given the nickname "the velvet brick". She is soft and gentle, kind and caring but she is also tough as nails, won't back down from what she knows is right and true and good but the driving motivation is never to be right and always to be kind. Mary has taught me much of what I know strength to be. She has taught me humility, to extend grace, to know that we don't have every answer or know every situation and to advocate for others. She has taught me to face my challenges head on, to not shy away from speaking up for myself but to do so with a motivation of love because anything else is self serving.
What advice would you give to the next generation of strong women? When you are pushing hard after strength find a woman a little ahead of you that you admire, not to chase after her or compete with her but to learn, share and let yourself be shaped and challenged by her. When you invite her into your life, invite her all the way in. Share the hard, the beautiful, the scary and the shameful. Her strength comes not from navigating away from all of those things in her own life but through working them out in community with others. Allow yourself to be led, ask hard questions and let yourself be wrong.
Lauren’s Intentional Act of Kindness
How did you use the $100? With the $100 that was given, I chose to buy gift cards for a woman I know who is continuing to work as an essential worker during this pandemic. The idea of a strong woman encouraged and inspired me to pick someone who embodied strength. I don't want to share too much of this person's story, but she is working hard and exhibiting strength daily. It was wonderful to be able to gift her with groceries and coffee.
What was the ‘Intentional Act of Kindness’ process like for you? At first, I over thought it. I wanted to make sure that I was doing it "right". When I freed myself up from that expectation, it was lovely. It felt like such a gift to be able to pray through who the Lord wanted to bless through this process. He very clearly spoke and it was wonderful to have the means to just obey.