Author Emily Wilson: Women who quietly serve others ‘are seen by the One who matters’

Author and speaker Emily Wilson addressed attendees of Live Action’s first Women’s Summit: Return to Eden in June, discussing the importance of selflessness and love in one’s life.

Wilson in the author of “Sincerely, Stoneheart,” written in the spirit of C.S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters.”

Key Takeaways:

• Wilson stressed the importance of self-giving love, as opposed to selfish love.

• Wilson said that women can discover their identity and grow closer to God through small acts of love.

• Wilson noted that courage and humility are necessary in order to truly give of oneself to others, and it is in the pursuit of unselfish love and self-sacrifice that each woman will find her purpose.

The Details:

At the beginning of her speech, Wilson said reading, “On the Dignity and Vocation of Women” by Pope John Paul II changed her life, and led her to begin ministering to women.

“We could talk about my testimony another time. But on the dignity and vocation of women, I read this line,” she said. “Woman cannot fully find herself except through a sincere gift of self. In the spirit of Christ, in fact, women can discover the entire meaning of their femininity and thus be disposed to making a sincere gift of self to others, thereby finding themselves.”

The Dignity of Women | Emily Wilson at the Live Action Women's Summit

Every woman is told through the greater culture that she needs to be the most beautiful person possible, to have the perfect husband or boyfriend, and to have the most high-paying career she can achieve. But Wilson said there is something else women are called to.

“I realized the deep call God placed on my life and each of our lives to make a sincere gift of our hearts to the world as women. A sincere gift of our hearts in a world that is hell-bent on selfishness. Literally, the devil speaks at every turn, ‘get as much as you can. Life is all about me, me, me.’ In a world hell-bent on selfishness, making a sincere gift of your heart to others requires many things. And two of those things are courage and humility. And these things are not lived loudly.”

As an example of this kind of life, Wilson pointed to St. Andrew, who lived in the shadow of St. Peter, but through humility, did whatever he could to support Jesus and His ministry. And it’s a role countless women still take on every day, through what she called ‘chair-folding’:

It is the work of the unseen and unnoticed in our world today. And women are so good at this, right? These jobs in the ministry of chair folding, they go throughout our whole lives.

Taking down the chairs, setting up the chairs, setting up the coffee pots, caring for sick children, volunteering at your local pregnancy center, cooking meals for your sick friends, organizing logistics, quietly serving in your church, doing paperwork, mentoring young people in prison, getting permission slips from teenagers, cooking food, loving and caring for your aging parent, listening to people, standing up for the pro-life movement in a very hostile workplace, loving one’s neighbor in all the ways nobody sees, in the way only the feminine heart can.

Many of you have walked and lived a quiet ‘yes’ for years, and the ministry of chair-folding is this ministry of humility for those who are unnoticed, are unseen, but they know they are seen by the One who matters, and that is God Himself.

The other virtue she encouraged women to pursue is courage — the courage to say no to premarital sex, or to stand up for what is right in the workplace, for example.

“Keep standing for truth, and don’t stop. How many incredible people in the pro-life movement are working tirelessly day in and day out?” Wilson said. “They don’t care if anybody knows their name. They are giving this sincere gift of themselves,” she said, adding, “My heart is a gift for the world. How is God calling me to do that, and say yes in humility, and say yes with peace, and say yes with joy, and freedom, and surrender? This is a quiet yes in courage and in love.”

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