February, 2009

Dear Readers of Girl Matters,

It has been a little over a year since we launched the Girl Matters website.  All of us who write for the blog have not only had a great time utilizing this wonderful medium to communicate our many thoughts (womanly or not), but we have also really enjoyed hearing feedback from our readers on some of the entries we had written over the year.  I am still impressed by how many men have come to enjoy our site!  I never imagined that the ramblings and musings of grown women could be a useful resource for anyone other than women, but I have been proven wrong.  So thanks very much to all of our readers -  we appreciate each of your clicks and web visits.  If we have in anyway tickled your imagination, pricked your consciences or just made you laugh out loud, we know that we are doing something right.  That being said, I’d like to orient you to some new updates to Girl Matters version 2.0:

New Look & Feel - As you can see we’ve changed up the site’s design.  We wanted something a little cleaner and easier to read.  We hope you like it.

New Guest Writers - We are including new writers in our writing circle:  Nickey Jun, Susan Kim and Grace Lee.  We hope you will enjoy hearing some new voices as they grace us with their thoughts and opinions.

New Avenues of Interaction - We want to open up dialogue through this site rather than just keeping it one-sided.  That’s why we’d like to invite you to write letters to the editor.  At the end of every month, we will post the letters you sent us that we think are particularly insightful or worth mentioning, along with responses from our writers if it is warranted.

New Subscriptions - You can now subscribe to us!  Check out the subscribe to us section on the right hand side of the page.

Well that’s it for now!  Please continue to visit Girl Matters and when you feel so inclined, send us a letter with your thoughts.  We hope you’ll be blessed as we continue to voice truth on biblical womanhood.

Sincerely,

Girl Matters

My daughter, Karissa, and I woke up to flowers and a box of chocolates on Valentine’s Day, presented to us by the boys and man in our lives.  It was cute to see Karissa staring at her single red rose asking me if my red tulips were prettier than her red rose.  I could tell that she felt very loved.  I’m hoping that she will learn how a guy should treat her by the way her dad and brothers interact with her now.  And I hope my boys will know how to treat their future wives and daughters.

As for me, I was reflecting on the number of Valentine’s Days I’ve shared with my husband and the first Valentine’s Day gift he gave me.  Not chocolates…not a cute stuffed animal…not flowers…but a Bible…a New Living Translation version!  He is a preacher after all…and it did have a personal message for me in there

Although the Bible is probably not one of the most purchased gifts on Valentine’s Day, I’m thankful for the gift.  It is a reminder of the kind of love we have shared over the past 13 years of married life.  In our culture, where the message of love differs from person to person and tends to be self-focused, it’s nice to know that our love is based on the love the Heavenly Father displayed when He sent His son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins.

This type of love is a decision we make each day to strengthen our marriage even when we have conflict and don’t feel like it at times.

Many TV shows are including themes of our current troubled economy.  From Ugly Betty to Law and Order, the impact of budget cuts and job loss have been written into the scripts.  I thought it’d be a good time to share some tips that have helped my budget without cramping my lifestyle:

SAVING ON GROCERIES:

- Make a habit of collecting and cutting up the Sunday Newspaper.  warning: this can be time consuming, but it’s worth it!  I was inspired by a woman who was a guest on Oprah that had over a $100 bill of groceries be cut down to under $40 with just coupons.  But she cuts every coupon she finds in the Sunday newspaper, which can take a couple hours every week.  I opted to spend only an hour cutting only coupons for things I was absolutely sure I needed–and ended up spending $8 instead of $16 at walgreens.  It takes some patience and work, but manufacters’ coupons usually last a few months so if done every week, you will have a bunch of coupons to use every time you shop.

-  Buy almost expired produce and meat (but consume before expiration of course).  Meijer is great with setting aside almost-expired foods and marking down the prices to half off–usually with red stickers.  I’ve noticed that Mondays are when they usually have the most of these discounted items

SAVING ON CLOTHING:
- Discount stores like Marshalls and TJ Maxx can save a lot of money, especially with name brands that you’d find at most shopping malls. However, it’s usually a lot more work rummaging through all of their things to find something you like.  One thing you can do to make sure you are looking at their best selection is to contact the store and ask when they are getting in their next shipment / wave of new clothing–and plan on being one of the first shoppers

- Buy clothes at the end of the season to use next year.  For those of us who like to be fashion-forward, this is risky since some trends come and go.  However, there are always those things we know we will need for sure like scarves, gloves, hats, etc.  And there are always classic pieces of clothing that will last any season.  As for things that are more trend-based, you might just have to use your fashion sense and take a risk.  But faux fur-trimmed jackets and UGG boots have been on campus for years now, so I think it’s worth the risk.  Just remember: get what you *need*, not want.  But the more %$ off original price, the more you can tip the scales to the ‘want’ side.

I’ll be spending some time traveling during the U of M Spring Break, so I’ll be updating on travel tips later!

At a leader’s meeting this weekend, one of our church staff with a background in counseling (and one of our writers-Hannah) came to talk to the ladies about eating disorders. It is estimated that 10% of female college students suffer from an eating disorder, and that four of every five women in the U. S. are dissatisfied with their appearance. Even looking at these statistics makes me realize the value of equipping our female leaders about how to help themselves and others who struggle with this.

One thing mentioned in the talk was about how our culture and media is one of the etiologies of eating disorders. How true this is! There’s always talk of stars losing or gaining weight, with more applause for those who have lost weight. There’s a pressure to be thin and that being thin is beautiful.

The media recently have been pointing out Jessica Simpson’s weight gain. Looking at these pictures, she definitely doesn’t look like a stick and she doesn’t look fat or obese to me. I think she looks fine and wish the media would hold back comments on how heavier she looked.

Even Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, stood up for her daughter when the media took pictures of her in a bikini and made unkind comments about her daughter’s weight. The Duchess kept commenting that her daughter was “a healthy size 10″.

I do admit that the cultural and media influences are strong in how we view ourselves and others. But we must fight against those and other worldly influences and replace it with Biblcial truths. We can’t do it alone. We need the power of Jesus and the accountability from other sisters.

And rather than focusing on being a size 0, 2 or ?, I think the focus should be on being healthy as ladies.