International Women's Day: because some things that should go without saying...don't

We celebrate International Women’s Day every year because some things that should go without saying … don’t.

So today, we say that girls deserve to live.

Girls deserve an education.

Girls in the U.S. and around the world deserve to live without the threat of abuse, sexual or otherwise.

Girls deserve to choose if or when they get married, and who that partner will be.

Girls deserve to pursue every career path there is.

Women deserve equal pay.

Women deserve the opportunity to be leaders — in politics, in the workplace, in the home, in the community and in the church.

Women deserve to choose how they present their personality and their body to the world without commentary or judgment.

Women deserve love and value and encouragement and recognition.

Women deserve to be heard.

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Somethings that should go without saying … don’t.

So today, we say that women don’t deserve these things because they’re better than men; they deserve them because they’re equal.

We say that when we value women, we don’t do it to the exclusion of men’s value. We do it because we know that how we value one individual is how we value the whole.

We say that when we encourage one person to thrive, we encourage the thriving of all living beings.

We say that when even one instrument is silenced, the whole symphony suffers.

And we say that we’re committed to working, praying, hoping, speaking and insisting on these truths until every single instrument has the opportunity to play her soaring, God-given notes.

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If you’d like to do something tangible to celebrate International Women’s Day, click here to make a donation to The Invisible Girls Trust Fund to help refugee girls from Somalia get a college education.