Woman of Worth

To say the past few months have been difficult is a bit of an understatement. I don’t want to dwell on what’s been tough for me, I think we’re all going through tough times at the moment.

Rather I wanted to share something I drew as a way of dealing with the array of emotions when things got a bit too much for me, in the hope that it might just help you too.

I’ve been looking at the use of dolls in therapy for some time and more recently how dolls are used in spirituality. There’s a lot of crafted dolls amongst the wiccan community called goddess dolls and dolls used in traditional rituals called poppet dolls, but what I was looking at is how we can use the image of a doll or female figure as an aid in Christian practice.

Now I know, I’m probably going to get some people telling me I’m ‘of the devil’ or worshipping idols, but remember the beginnings of Salvation Army music. Many songs started as music hall tunes and folk back then said it was ‘of the devil’, but as William Booth asked “why should he devil have all the good music?” I also ask why can’t we use the female form as a way to help us in our faith?

After all, who made the female form? Who made women?

So, here’s what I did…

I drew a simple female form on paper. Outside the female form I wrote and drew the concerns and struggles I had. I’ve erased them from the above image because they’re concerns between me and God.

Then once I’d got all my concerns out on the paper I sat and thought about what God was saying to me, as a woman, as a child of God. As phrases from hymns and verses from the Bible came to mind I imagined God’s response to the reality, of who I am in God. Then on the female sketch, I wrote what my response was. I’ve left that visible to help you in case you wanted to also try this.

Then I decorated the drawing and painted it.

As some people use words and music to remind themselves of our truth in God, I used art. Anyway, before you write your strongly worded letter to me about how I’m involving myself in paganism I suggest you give it a try.

For me, it got out some of the inner battles I’ve been struggling with these past few months, my dad nearing the end of his life, my mum being ill, family difficulties, financial worries, mental health concerns, physical health challenges. All handed to God and in return the promises that never fail.