She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. (31:13)
The woman of noble character is selective. This woman in particular selects wool and flax, materials for making clothing, blankets, coverings, etc. She knows that she needs to choose high-quality material so that the things she makes will last as long as possible. Even if money was not an issue, she would still choose wisely so that her money is used most wisely. She knows that her decisions and selections have a direct effect on the safety and well-being of her family, and therefore, she does not make her decisions lightly.
Women in the time of King Lemuel (the author of Proverbs 31) certainly had many decisions to make, but I think we can agree that women now have even more. We have to make decisions about money, children, friends, family, values, entertainment, jobs, education, political representation, religious representation, and so much more. How we make those decisions provides a direct reflection of who we are and what is important to us. You can almost always tell more about a person by their decisions, not their speech.
Of particular salience right now is the need to be selective about the presidential candidate that one gives their vote to. I'm not normally interested in politics, possibly even less so during election years because all of the arguing and fighting is simply nauseating. But here's what sparked my interest in this presidential race: an article published in my college's newspaper, the Chimes.
http://www.calvin.edu/chimes/2012/10/12/biblical-perspectives-for-campaign-2012/ (You should know that in the print version, the article was entitled "The Christian Way to Vote Obvious from Parties' Platforms." The online version's title is much more objective).
I won't rehash the entire article because you can just as easily read it for yourself. The foundation of the author's argument is that Governor Romney's platform is the one that Christians should support. Unfortunately, his argument is based solely on the issues of abortion and gay/lesbian marriage. It's true; Romney's position on abortion and gay/lesbian marriage is very Biblical. He is morally opposed to both and plans to pass legislation making them illegal. President Obama's legislation supports marriage for all and supports the woman's right to choose what she does with her pregnancy.
Not only does the article not cover any other key issues, but it also skims over Governor Romney's shortcomings. After spending several paragraphs on what he terms "the Democratic Party's adopted agenda of the sins of Romans 1," he merely covers his back with a sentence or two about the fact that Governor Romney's administration is far from perfect. Since he doesn't give any specific examples, the reader would be entirely justified in concluding that the author does not actually believe this. As a journalist, he has to aim for at least a modicum of objectivity and those two or three sentences seem to fill his quota.
It is news coverage and extremist propaganda that makes it so incredibly difficult to make good choices. Without getting too snarky or upset, I want to state my position on the two front-running presidential candidates. I'm not particularly impressed with either of them, mostly because neither seems to know that the word "that" comes after the phrase "The reason is," not the word "because." As in, the REASON that I am not particularly impressed with either of them is THAT neither seems to know this rule of English grammar. But aside from questions of language proficiency, here are the reasons that I support President Obama more than I support Governor Romney.
1. I do not support the act of abortion, nor do I support the act of marrying someone of the same gender. However, I do support the right of all people to make their own decisions, which is President Obama's stance. I have never heard anyone say that Obama supports the murder of unborn children. He supports instead the woman's right to make her own decisions about her unborn child. It's the same with gay/lesbian marriage: President Obama is clearly married to someone of the opposite gender, but he understands that not all people want to make the same decision he has made.
2. It came out in one of the debates that Romney wishes to cut funding for agencies like Planned Parenthood that provide teenagers and young adults with condoms and birth control. Time for some math: 1 box of Trojan condoms costs $12.99 at CVS Pharmacy and you get 12 condoms. So about a dollar per condom. A bottle of prenatal vitamins costs $14.99 and you get 30 pills. That's about 50 cents a pill. Except that, ideally, a woman would take one vitamin every day beginning with the time that she finds out she's pregnant (so about 7 months' worth of vitamins). 210 pills at 50 cents each costs a person $105. And that's probably the least expensive expenditure for an expecting mother. Factor in doctor's visits, hospital costs, insurance costs, food, diapers...the list goes on. Just think: you could have prevented it with a condom that costs one dollar. Even if you used 3 condoms each time, the cost still doesn't even compare. The point here, again, is that one person cannot control the decisions of another. I've written about this very issue before: people are going to have sex no matter how many times we tell them not to. Personally, I'd rather have them do it and use condoms/birth control than do it and get pregnant because they couldn't get condoms/birth control.
3. Governor Romney wants to funnel a larger percentage of the federal budget into the nation's military so that it will be so strong that no other country will want to challenge it. Now, in my experience, the person or people with the most strength and the most power are typically the most hated. Think of the school bully: he or she has control of the land, but no one actually likes them. I fear the same thing would happen to us. Governor Romney would not augment the military only to have it stay out of other nations' affairs. Otherwise, what's the point of such a strong military? Those billions of dollars could better be spent on education or programs to eliminate poverty.
4. While Governor Romney's platform is strong on Biblically-based values when it comes to abortion and marriage, where are his Biblically-based values on caring for the vulnerable or being the voice for the voiceless? He's quite vocal on behalf of unborn children, but what about the poor? The struggling? The immigrants? As President, it will be his job to seek the good of all, not just the people most like him that hold his values. President Obama's legislation has at least started the country on a path toward giving a voice to as many people as possible. And while abortion and gay/lesbian marriage are not Biblical in themselves, passing judgment and enforcing a certain worldview at the national level certainly aren't either.
5. It all comes down to the battle between love and the law. Is it more important to enforce God's law or to show God's love? If you want someone to do something (or not do something), you won't get very far by telling them what to do or creating rules that limit their choices. People don't tend to respond well to things forced on them. You can get a lot farther by providing choice and compassion. When Jesus began His ministry, the religious leaders of the day were worried that He had come to abolish the Law. Jesus said that he came instead to fulfill the Law. If you have any questions about how He fulfilled the law, just take a look at how He lived His life. I'll give you a hint: He did it in love.
I can't tell you how you should vote next month, or if you should even vote at all. If I did, you can tattoo the word "hypocrite" across my forehead since I just got done talking about how important it is to make one's own decisions. So in matters of politics as well as every other aspect of life, it's important and necessary to be selective. Think of yourself, think of others, and think of who you represent.
Your decisions matter.
