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When you're mistaken for Rosie the Riveter, count it all joy

On a work Zoom call a few weeks ago, someone told me I looked like I could model for Rosie the Riveter. It was probably the way I was wearing my hair, but it truly made my day. Today is International Women’s Day, and since I am late chiming in on the “Have you chosen your Word- of-the-Year?” question, it seemed like a good opportunity to finally do so! It is still the first quarter of 2024, after all, and I have yet to set my professional goals at work. The deadline for that is March 15. (Beware the Ides!)



For my word of the year, I chose “Strong.” This is as much an affirmation as it is a challenge. A few years ago, my team at work did the CliftonStrengths assessment and we’ve continued to hold ongoing conversations about our individual and collective strengths and how we use them in our roles and which strengths we’d like to use more.

For someone who has felt her whole life that she is deficient because she didn’t possess X or Y traits like someone else, recognizing that my Z trait is a strength has been transformational. My top five strengths are intellection, responsibility, connectedness, adaptability and ideation. If you were to think of my top five strengths as weaknesses, these could be summed up as chronic over-thinking!

But in the strengths framework and especially in God’s economy, what we and perhaps others perceive as weaknesses can be viewed as strengths. We can glory in the weakness because we are being made strong. “But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I weak, then I am strong,” (2 Corinthians 12: 9-10). If we are less strong in an area, how do we get stronger? By leaning in. Doing the thing. Taking the step. Repeatedly. Habitually. With faith and faithfulness.

If we spend all our time feeling inferior and deficient, instead of focusing on our strengths, this can heighten anxiety. For many years I have found it easier to ruminate on the past and my perceived shortcomings rather than face the present and future with courage. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go,” (Joshua 1:9). With a strengths-based perspective, it is possible to look forward without fear of catastrophe. This is doubly true for people of faith because not only do we bring our inherent strengths to the challenges we face, we also recognize that God is with us.

Several places in Scripture describe the wearing of certain attributes. The virtuous (or “strong”) woman of Proverbs does this: “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come,” (Proverbs 31:25). This is a reminder that just as we choose the clothing we put on in the morning, we can choose strength and joy when thinking about the future.

I choose strength, dignity and joy for 2024! I am STRONG. 

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