Ummm...is any place safe?

God has gifted me with the opportunity to listen to so many diverse women of God. Women of all ages, races, ethnicities & socio-economic backgrounds and what I know for sure is that many, if not most are struggling daily. Some are in active travail...struggling in the push to give birth to God purposes, others are so afraid to fail or succeed that they keep having abortions... then there are those who suffer multiple miscarriages because they are getting their purposes knocked out of them at the hands of spiritual abuse... and most seem to have a history of trauma, sexual &/or physical in their lives... so then I ask... where are the safe spaces for women to just be...just be real, just be authentic, in all their brokenness & unmasked pain and feel wholly loved & accepted? Far too often the spaces we say are for women, especially at church, only end up being spaces that perpetuate further judgement, shame, & GUILT and not spaces that foster sustainable growth & healing. Shame & guilt only create a cycle of failure & depression. You feel shame, try to change, fail, then repeat... When honestly, the last thing any woman needs to be reminded is why she isn't holy, why she isn't right, why she's not where she needs to be, why EVERYTHING that's not going right is somehow her fault... her inner voice is already yelling all that in her ear. And she especially doesn't need to hear all this by those who never seem to confront or address the oppressive paradigm from which she struggles to exist within.... so what do our sister's need? TRUE SAFE SPACES...