Financing and faith for female empowerment

RECENTLY I had the pleasure of witnessing a woman truck driver being featured in a JIS television story. She masterfully demonstrated the features of the new garbage trucks. With her freshly done acrylic nails glistening on camera, she displayed the various functions on the dashboard of the new vehicle before eventually driving the truck with ease. After her demonstration she shared how driving trucks has helped her tremendously as a single mother. She encouraged single mothers to consider truck driving instead of looking to a man to provide. That caught my attention.

While fathers should provide for their children, women in today’s world do not need to suffer the indignity of the unwillingness or inability of those who do not wish to play the role. Yes, the State must absolutely hold infidel men 100 per cent accountable for playing their financial part in supporting their children, but I believe that an empowered woman, a financially empowered woman, need not wait outside a courthouse for the authorities to strongarm the man to send money so that she can buy bread for her children and pay their school fees. Like this lady in the feature, she must emancipate herself and seize the opportunities before her. So, let’s start at the beginning.

From early, girls must get an education and/or a skill. Girls must have a bank account of their own. Girls must learn to save. Girls must learn to invest. Girls must learn how to start a business. Girls must learn how to do a budget and stick to it. A girl must learn all this while also learning to be herself, appreciating her uniqueness, understanding her delicateness and her power. She must understand her personality, strengths and flaws, her talents, gifts, propensities, preferences, and what gives her peace. She must understand her value while also seeing the value in serving and being served. And within that context, as she is discovering and empowering herself, she can meet boys.

As she grows up, she must discern how she wants to navigate with young men. She can enjoy all the dynamism and beauty of an empowered young man who is also getting an education and/or a skill, who has a bank account, who is learning to save, invest, start a business and understand himself, his value, etc. Or she can choose not to engage with men at all because she wants to focus on her other goals and still be whole and well, with every financial need met. She can also discern if the available man is not empowered and again ably decide not to engage with him at all because she does not need to suffer the indignity of his unwillingness and inability to walk with her in a loving, supportive way.

So let’s empower the girl with education and/or a skill like driving a truck, with a bank account, with resources so that, never again, will a girl have to grow up and be literally or figuratively kicked around because she required of the father of her children, financial support. After all, the drawback to total female empowerment is, many times, largely financial.

But if we’re being honest, it’s so much more. You see, the thing that has buoyed me, led me, inspired me, opened my mind to a fuller life, emancipating me to greater possibilities, is the Holy Spirit. It’s the tugging from outside of myself that whispers, “You are precious, you are wonderfully made, there’s a plan for you. Go after it.” Financial strength is super important but faith in God is the springboard for an abundant life.

When you believe in the goodness of God and the good things He has for you, you want to do great exploits in His name, you want the abundance that He offers, and you know that you ought not be kicked around. True faith in God aligns with wisdom, insight and confidence, and usually results in better decisions that will enable you to prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers. So female empowerment is a journey fuelled by faith.

Passionate about faith and women’s empowerment, Shelly-Ann Mair-Harris is the author of several publications including God’s Woman and The Goodies on Her Tray. A woman of faith for several years, Shelly-Ann is the creator of Family and Faith Magazine and Women & Faith. Send an e-mail to womenandfaithcommunity@gmail.com.