Listening to the call: "Sarah needs to climb back on the pedestal" reminded me of something my mother told me about my father years ago. My father and I had a rocky relationship in my teen years because I rebelled against what I saw as his unreasonably strict standards (e.g. I wasn't allowed to wear makeup or short skirts). She told me then that he put women on a pedestal and especially revered and honored motherhood; and therefore, has very clear ideas about how women should honor and respect themselves and how they should present themselves.
In his later years after my mother passed away, on every Mother's Day, he would phone close friends who were mothers to wish them a happy Mother's Day. That may sound unusual, but that was his way of honoring what he saw as the sacred trust of motherhood.
You are so right to have pointed out to Sarah that women's individual actions have wider repercussions: we women voluntarily jump off our pedestals which trains a huge number of men to treat us without respect. I was one of them despite my parents' wonderful example. I got pregnant while in a long-term dating relationship, but the good news is I did end up marrying my baby's father after I started listening to your radio show. And ever since, I have been a stay-at-home mom to my son and his little brother who came along a few years later. It's never too late to change, and we have you in our corner to lend us a backbone until we can stiffen our own!
Thanks for all you do.
Jennifer
