Christmastime with my cousins

I love my family.

Blessed are the meek

I've been reading a book on the beatitudes and lately I've been inspired by the "Blessed are the meek" bit. Mostly because we live in a country where women especially are trained to be anything BUT meek. Even with a mother who isn't a feminist it's hard to not be influenced by the "powerful" women of our day. My mother doesn't want her daughters to go around spouting men aren't important and that our needs are far more important than anyone else's and she's made that quite clear to us. My father is a very strong influence in my life who has always been the head of our household and he wants us to learn to serve others, put our needs second and most importantly love God. Nonetheless, I find myself more influenced by women in the media who are, well, nasty.

In my opinion, in this day and age, the media quickly teach men to be meek. And men learn the part quite well. They don't often cry out that their needs are more important and that this is unfair treatment. They accept this burden well.

Here's the thing, most women I know are loving, sweet people aren't anything like the media has painted women to be. I truly want to be like them. Deep inside I'd really like to learn to be as the quintessential Christian, the Theotokos, who embodies all of the beatitudes.

But what is meekness? What does it look like? I have this idea of meekness: a humble, sweet, loving person who puts others needs before their own. They don't find their own emotions the height of importance. I believe that the meek person is a stronger person than the confrontational person.

How does one embody meekness? I'll plug on to find the answers.

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth.