Five Things We Can Learn from Eowyn

After the final installment of the Lord of the Rings movies, I splurged and bought our daughters a Christmas present. It's pictured on the right. Any guesses? 

Yes, in fact, it is an exact replica of Eowyn's battle helmet. Was that not obvious? Except for the whole only two inches tall thing. I don't think I could have afforded a life-size one--exact replicas don't come cheap. Plus, I'm pretty sure there would be questions every time someone walked into our living room and saw a full battle helmet chillin' on the TV cabinet.

Not that there aren't questions when people enter our house already.

No one asked why I bought such a thing for eleven and twelve-year-old girls. I think they had gotten used to my weirdness eccentricities by then. But I knew. I knew the kind of woman I wanted those girls to grow into. And so, here are some things we can all learn from Eowyn, one of my favorite fictional heroes.

• Challenging men to duels is not the best way to get a guy. (But it still could be fun.)

• Knowing how to cook is overrated if you have other skills. Like knowing how to kill undying enemies.

• Love and Loyalty are better motivations than glory and honor. They also produce better results.

• Name what you're afraid of, then figure out how to beat it. The only way to get over the fear is to know what it is, decide whether it's real, and make a strategy for kissing it goodbye.

“What do you fear, lady?"

"A cage," [Éowyn] said. "To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.”

• Being content is an art. It has more to do with knowing who you are than what you do or have.

If you spend your life pursuing recognition for what you do, you might fail actually to be anything worthwhile. And being is so much more important.

What do you think? Have you mastered the art? Made a plan? Let's talk.

Read more about Eowyn and the others soon in Hobbits, You, and theSpiritual World of Middle-earth.