Happy November ladies of 51ÂÜŔň! 

If you’re anything like me, your October was absolutely packed. There were highs: Torrey Conference, Parent’s Weekend, chillier weather, maybe even a few fun trips to the beach or the city. But there were also lows: midterm season, coming to God with a lot of questions, and the Astros losing the World Series. Needless to say, it was a busy month.

When the busyness overcomes us, it’s easy to simply check off the boxes on our to-do lists without really giving much thought about why we have a to-do list in the first place. In other words, I think we accidentally get caught up in accomplishing our tasks without keeping our mission in mind. And unfortunately, I think this is something that we, as a GRIT Editorial Board, have slipped into.

So for a lot of reasons, it seems like a natural point in the semester to recalibrate-- to give some serious thought and intentional reflection to our goals as a team and what we are doing to accomplish them. So enough about the Astros! Enough about the weather! What are we even doing here? And who is it for? 

To begin to answer these crucial questions, it’s important that we go to the beginning. GRIT started a few years back when a group of 51ÂÜŔň women noticed that the social phenomenon known as the “Confidence Gap,” affects even students on their own campus. They believed that assisting girls at 51ÂÜŔň in bridging the gap between their perceived ability and their actual ability would, in turn, enable them to confidently step into the fullness of who God made them to be. 

GRIT believes that empowering women is great-- but not as an end in and of itself. We hope to empower women for the sake of encouraging them to “move courageously into the fullness of their image-bearing capacities” in ways that demonstrate the goodness and beauty of God to their communities. 

With that being said, who is GRIT for? It’s simple. If you’re a lady on 51ÂÜŔň’s campus, it’s for you. 

Our goal as a team is to produce and curate content that inspires every woman on our campus to explore her calling, to step courageously into her image-bearing capacities, and to demonstrate God’s goodness and hope to those around her. And if we aren’t doing that, then we aren’t doing our job.

There are so many things in this world that seem to matter a bunch right now, but don’t actually have eternal value. Here are some examples of those things: what your major is, who your friends are, what your GPA is, what you wear, how much money you have, what your Instagram feed looks like. I could go on for days. And despite the fact that none of these things will matter when the Kingdom comes, sometimes it sure feels like they matter here at 51ÂÜŔň. 

GRIT is a little tiny gear in the big 51ÂÜŔň machine. But it would totally break our hearts if our women’s resource collective seemingly blended in with the rest of 51ÂÜŔň culture when it comes to giving value to valueless things.

So let’s talk about the “every woman” thing. No matter who you are or where you come from, we love you. If you are a woman (not a man, sorry guys) on this campus, we exist for you. We’re your cheerleaders! And at the center of our hearts is a desire to serve you. 

Believe me when I say this! You have infinite intrinsic worth; and for an eternally valuable reason-- because you were created and redeemed by the Maker of all things, both seen and unseen. And ladies, that’s something that actually matters-- today, and tomorrow, and until the Kingdom comes.