Women's History Month

This is the month we celebrate the accomplishments of women in our lives. In my class at Lipscomb last week we talked about mentors--and not suprisingly most of them were women--mostly mothers, grandmothers and teachers. Of course, fathers and grandfathers were mentioned too.

It is too true that we do not think to thank those who have brought us up until it is too late--but it may not be too late for you dear readers to thank those who served as your mentors. Do it today with a phone call or letter or card.

March is Women's History Month. It does seem like a good month to discuss those women both in life and in history who have led, inspired and goaded us to be better people.

As I spoke to my class, I told them that one of my mentors was a person I had never met or heard speak: Marian Wright Edelman. She is president of the Children's Defense Fund and the author of several books including the inspirational The Measure of Our Success and Guide My Feet. I also like her book Lanterns, A Memoir of Mentors in which she recounts how her mentors changed her life. She says some of the most important lessons did not come from Harvard PHD's, but from poor women and men educated in the school of life. "Their pens and pencils were sharpened by poverty. Their mother wit was created by the daily struggle to survive. Their inner faith was nourished by their outer losses. Their eyes were riveted on searching for and doing God's will rather than human ways, and their standards were divine rather than human.

She continues, " Their examples made me stand up when I wanted to sit down, try one more time when I wanted to stop, and go out the door when I wanted to stay home and relax. They saw me inside and not just outside and affirmed the strengths I had."

Know anyone like that in your life? As I write this month, I will be celebrating the mentors in my life.

Thanks to Marian Wright Edelman for all she and the Children's Defense Fund does for children and for the very insprirational books she writes.