Each night at the dinner table, my family has a ritual of each member sharing their “highs, lows, and gratitudes” of the day – a fun or joyful or fulfilling part of the day, a hard part of the day, and something that we are grateful for that day. I often nudge my children to stretch their thinking about gratitude beyond their favorite foods on the plate before them to noticing the things, moments, and people in our days that we often take for granted. In this spirit, I offer these words of gratitude for my work with BWIM over this last year.
I am grateful for the trailblazers, the women who have shown us the way by modeling faithful leadership, courage and grace.
I am grateful for the women whose names most of us will never know, women who are in the trenches, quietly doing the work of ministry in churches, hospitals, non-profits, hospice centers and homes, in businesses, among those serving our country, and in all the places where women serve.
I am grateful for the women who modeled leadership for me as a young girl, though most of them never had a title or official role to go along with their responsibility.
I am grateful for little girls who will never wonder if they can and should lead.
I am grateful for churches and organizations who take courageous steps to follow God’s spirit.
I am grateful for the hope that I’ve found by meeting gifted and called college and seminary women who are listening for God’s voice in their lives.
I am grateful for those who invest their lives in mentoring others, and those who know the importance of seeking out wise and experienced mentors for their work and lives.
I am grateful for the sisters I’ve met who are on familiar journeys, who inspire and encourage.
More personally, I am grateful for a season of ministry in which I have been given space to imagine, reflect, wrestle, grieve, and dream, and a co-worker who has blessed all of these things.
Most of all, I’m grateful for a God that continues to call and “do a new thing” in us.
Julie Long is associate director of Baptist Women in Ministry.