A daughter’s outdooring – welcome to womanhood

The event was called an “outdooring” borrowed from a Ghanaian term used for the ceremony when a child is named after her birth and presented to the community.

In this case, Sophia was being welcomed into womanhood by the women who had spoken into her life and influenced her to grow into her name, which means wisdom.

A daughter’s outdooring – making space

It was a hypothesis, an idea to counter the current cultural confusion.

Adolescent girls are wondering where they belong. It is normal procedure for moving out into the world on your own. When you prepare to leave, you look to what you might cleave.

In this peak identity-forming season, our girls are turning to the junk values of our culture. They are following the loudest messages – the ones they’ve been immersed in their whole lives – that would reduce them, bottle them and sell them.

Where is the alternate message – one of truth and wisdom – to give them a choice and a chance? Where are the voices that would value them, equip them and unleash them?

If they exist (and we are certain they do), our daughters may not hear them above the din.

So let’s consider how we might give that message and those voices the microphone. How might we make space for wisdom so that our young women can hear it?

Iron & Bragg Photography

More to come…

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