Being a woman

I was browsing through a friend's abandoned blog, and came across a past entry, which seemed to touch me, ever so significantly. I think I was probably forwarded it in my email some time ago, nonetheless I'm copying and pasting it here. Perhaps now I know what to answer to my kids the next time I am asked the question... "Because I'm a woman"

TEARS OF A WOMAN

"Mom, why are you crying?" he asked his mom.

"Because I'm a woman" she told him.

"I don't understand," he said.

His mom just hugged him and said, "and you never will."

Later the little boy asked his father, "Why does mother seem to cry for no reason?"

"All women cry for no reason" was all his dad could say.

The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry. Finally he put in a call to GOD. The man then asked, "GOD, why do women cry so easily?"

GOD said:"When I made women she had to be special. I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world; yet, gentle enough to give comfort.

I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children.

I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining. I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very badly. This same sensitivity helps her to make a child's boo-boo feel better and shares in her teenagers' anxieties and fears.

I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart. I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly.

I gave her a tear to shed, it's hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed. It's her only weakness; it's a tear for mankind."

*****