Category Archives: University

19th Century, Health, History, Intercession, Medicine, Minnesota, omnipresent history, University, women

Ripley Maternity Hospital Opens 1886

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1886

“Dr. Martha Ripley opens a maternity hospital for unwed mothers in Minneapolis. A pioneer in combining social care with medical treatment, she teaches new mothers how to care for their babies and helps them find work. 

Martha Ripley’s training was in medicine, but her interest was in the rights of women. She advocated for women’s right to vote and consistently argued against the abuses that led women to her hospital.” *

Thank you, Lord, that your personality is balanced; You are protector and nurturer! Will You bless Martha Ripley and her generations in the imitation of Your character? She expressed the mother nurture for those women and girls who did not have an adequate voice in society, or means for their pregnancy. 

Our society has often skewed into imbalance in its’ emphasis of one gender over the other. We have denied the good attributes and blessings of the opposite sex that You have intended for our state. We have failed to balance our head and our heart! We have failed to balance rational thought with the relational thoughts based on love. Lord have mercy! 

How has this been expressed? In the over emphasis of male political leadership and exclusive male voting rights for much of our history. We have suppressed the benefits of female scholarship, and the Imago Dei that is intellectually expressed best by a female mind. Our churches have too often promoted female submission to male head of households, without equally emphasizing male responsibility to selfless love and leadership. We have negated Your example of humble servant-leadership. Hear our prayer!

Lord, will You forgive us for discounting your voice in the opposite sex? Will You forgive the negation of female doctors, scientists, and cultural leaders like Dr. Ripley? Lord, will forgive us for emphasis on submission rather than freedom? Will You teach us the healthy bounds of submission to one another in choice-based love?

Will You stop us from overreacting and rejecting the opposite sex based on our painful experiences? Will You help Minnesotans’ forgive our mothers or fathers, and deliver us from the cycle of offense, counter-offense? Will You give us the forbearance for our ‘beloved enemies’ of the opposite sex? All our rejections of the opposite sex deny Your masterpiece in each. Will You forgive us?

 

 

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19th Century, Art, Culture, education, History, Intercession, Minnesota, travel, University

First Female Professor (Maria Sanford) 1880

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1880

“Maria Sanford becomes the first female professor at the University of Minnesota. A legend to her students and an ambassador of learning to the entire state, she gives thousands of public lectures on history, art, and travel. Beneath a statue of her in the U.S. Capitol are the words “the best-known and best-loved woman in Minnesota.” 

In 1899, students at the U of M will nominate professor Sanford for the Minneapolis Journal’s “favorite-teacher” contest. She comes in third, but receives the first-prize trip to Europe after students convince the newspaper to let them make up the difference in cost.” * 

Thank You that our university chose to embrace knowledge whether housed in a male or female body. Thank You for the impact that this single woman created within the U of MN. Thanks that in Your eyes we are not limited by the cultural assessments of our gender. We are free to be Your man; Your woman!

Father, forgive us for any judgements as Your unique people of Minnesota that apply to gender from this time through the present. Forgive the brand of bitterness that holds all males captive for the sins of our fathers’. Forgive the type of bitterness that holds all women prisoner for the separations with our mothers’. 

We hate our fathers’ and their incomplete masculinity! We hate our mothers’ and objectify women. Rescue us from our ungracious and misinformed assessments of our parents. Will You make this state of Minnesota shine with the forgiveness of those who gave us life? Will You help all who wrestle with gender identity? Will You set in balance the influence of mother and father, maleness and femaleness, within all the children of Minnesota!?

Heal the ground below from the words we have spoken against our fathers’. Heal the water from the rejection of our mothers’. Heal the skies from the thoughts of vengeance we have entertained against them! Bring Your chesed, Messiah!

* http://www.mnhs.org/about/dipity_timeline.htm

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19th Century, Culture, education, History, Minnesota, University

University of Minnesota Founded

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1851
“Twenty students begin at the University of Minnesota. Beginning in a small building with only one teacher, the university won’t offer college-level instruction until 1869.” *

Great Teacher, thanks for the blessings we have today because of these small beginnings! What good things grow from small seeds? Will You lead my thoughts and prayer for the “U” today?
Here’s a basic summary of the founding of the school as given on it’s website:

“The University of Minnesota was founded as a preparatory school in 1851 seven years before the territory of Minnesota became a state. Financial problems forced the school to close during the Civil War, but with the help of Minneapolis entrepreneur John Sargent Pillsbury, it reopened in1867. Known as the father of the University, Pillsbury, who was a University regent, state senator, and governor, used his influence to establish the school as the official recipient of public support from the Morrill Land-Grant Act, designating it as Minnesota’s land-grant university.” **

Thank You for the opportunities this university created for students in its’ first decade! Thank You for the synergy of it’s re-opening: one part government, one part business, one part Pillsbury influence. How many students had a chance to learn because of the determination and will of J.S. Pillsbury? Today we thank You for these individuals, and the impact of the this school on their lives!

Truly, it would be difficult to summarize the impact of our University on our state, nation, and world over these past 150 years. Every discipline seems to exert a significant force and merit recognition in our nation. Students from the entire continent of North America gather here to learn. Our Mid-Western culture values and expects that most Minnesotans want a college degree.

Perhaps a limitation of education is that knowledge is not necessarily relational?
Counselor, will You have mercy on the roots of the false pride of knowledge that grew from this founding seed, both in teacher and pupil? Will You forgive us our judgments’ of our neighbor’s ignorance or our prejudices against formal education within the culture of Minnesota from this era forward? “…We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. but the man who loves G-d is known by G-d.” 1Corinthians 8:1-3

*http://www.mnhs.org/about/dipity_timeline.htm

** https://r.umn.edu/node/511

 

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