Suddenly I realized - I’m not equal.

I can deliver the message. But it takes a team of unique people to build the details of the message.

​When I was a little girl, I thought I could do anything, because, as culture told me, I was just as smart, just as strong, just as capable as anyone - especially any man.

As it turns out, that’s actually a load of crap.

But I didn’t realize it right away. I graduated college and entered my career still believing it. I entered the room believing whatever I thought, whatever I had to say, was equally as relevant as anyone else in the room. To hell with wisdom and experience- I was equal and I knew it because I had been told so.

I can’t pinpoint exactly when, but at some point, something clicked. And suddenly I realized, I’m not equal. I’m not equally as smart, equally as strong or equally as capable.

Now, I consider it one of the greatest blessings of my professional life to daily be sitting at a table where everyone around me is more intelligent, stronger and more capable.

Even at home, I’m grateful everyday my husband is physically stronger, more mechanically inclined and more detailed oriented than me. (If he wasn’t we would be in a real mess.)

Now, I’ve got some things I bring to the table. I’ll bring more passion than anyone. Whatever I give up in smarts I’ll make up for in work. I’ve got a knack for envisioning solutions that are outside the box, executable and more-often than not successful. I can understand complex things and then communicate them in an elementary way.

I’m good at those things - really good, actually.

But... I’m not equal. To the men, or the women, who sit with me. Sometimes (like in passion) I’m a little bit more. Often times (like in the details, mental strength or just plain intelligence) I’m quite a bit less.

We were created differently and our Creator doesn’t make mistakes. We were intentionally made to be more in some, and less in others.

Maybe that design is to keep us humble, or to encourage relationship, or maybe to constantly remind us that we cannot function alone. (All things that we have to remember to truly be in relationship with Jesus.)

I get the equality movement - it’s valid and important. But I also know the dangers, firsthand, that mindset can play if we encourage everyone to see themselves as the same, instead of embrace the differences God intentionally created us with.

I have been more successful as a professional, a wife and a friend once I learned to embrace myself as different, not equal.

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This is not meant to disparage the Women’s Equality movement. As a professional woman who has experienced some of the problem, I want to clearly state those issues are real, worthy of attention, and in need of correction.

However, some of the conversations I’ve seen in relation to today’s equality celebration, attempt to promote the same damaging idea that I fell victim to. I have been more successful as a professional, a wife and a friend once I learned to embrace myself as different, not equal.

Even at a table with college students, I was far from the most intelligent.