My Purple Apron
This blog entry will be brief, but I just could not hold it in. By now you have read about my journey through the pandemic to current and me exploring the paths back to my divine purpose. Well the race isn't over for me yet, but I believe I have met a milestone that I could not, not share. This past weekend (September 17th, 2022) I accepted the 'purple apron' to serve as the Recording Secretary for San Francisco section of the National Council of Negro Women. Chiiiiiile when I say I was unsure about this commitment, I was so worried that I was making another decision to fall back into the habit of people pleasing and not people serving. I made a promise to God that in all my works it will be to promote his agenda for love and inspiration of his people - most specifically black, young women like myself. In everything that I do it will be to support and encourage others. So when this opportunity came, I praaaayed. "Lord, please let this be in alignment with what you would have for me to accomplish on this earth."
Now at the ceremony, my stomach was turning. When they began the installment ceremony I noticed a pile of aprons behind the facilitator. AN APRON?? Are we back in the 50s? What do I look like putting on a apron. And then clips of my past started flowing through my mind. Of those days I was forced to put an apron on to serve in the soup kitchen at my childhood church. Or being in the kitchen and seeing the church grannies in their matching red aprons while trying to be a "taste tester" before the afternoon service. Or my grandfather wearing his apron every thanksgiving dinner while he seasoned and carved the turkey and multi-working the eyes on the stove (with a glass of *cough cough* "strong water"). Socially aprons have symbolized domestic and oppressed positions. But my past has shown time where someone in an apron represented much more. Where there was an apron there was food, there was love, there was giving, and there was SERVICE.
God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. - Acts 19: 11-12 (niv)
As I placed the apron on and was tied very snug around me I was truly humbled. Standing there in front of a room of successful, wise, and amazing women leaders I started to feel the exact reason for me to be in that place. I want everything that I own to heal, empower, and equip all who come close to it. Like Paul, I want to bring hope and life to dead situations. I am truly committed to helping women see their value and shine with all the audacity; unapologetically. Therefore, I chose to lead, humbly, by example - in my purple apron!
