Building Your Pearls

Currently, I am reading through a book by Jackie Kendall and Debby Jones entitled Lady In Waiting: Becoming God’s Best While Waiting For Mr. Right. I haven’t dived in too deep yet – I’m only on chapter five after all, but from the pages I have delved into, I can assure you it is a great read.

Besides the fact that I have enjoyed reading it, I have found myself challenged spiritually with the questions and thought provoking statements. I won’t lie – some of them are hard, but its the good kind of difficult that makes you consider where you are in your faith realistically, not fictionally.

The main theme within the chapters so far has been building your character to become more Christ-like. This is where the analogy of the pearls comes into play.

Jackie and Debby write, “One of life’s most costly and beautiful objects is born out of pain and irritation – the pearl. A tiny piece of sand slips into an oyster’s shell and begins to rub against the soft tissue, causing irritation. In response to the irritation, the oyster produces a hard substance. This substance eventually develops into one of the world’s most beautiful jewels – a lovely luminous pearl. In fact, the greater the irritation, the more valuable the pearl!”

These ‘irritations’ in our own life can be in the form of trials, struggles, or as they say – singleness. We all have many pearls: some good, others bad. Yet, the fake white orbs will eventually fade into tarnished, chipped paint. No longer beautiful. But the real ones – the true ones forged in the fires of affliction and molded by the hovering hand of God will be the pearls that last.

In the book, they challenged the reader to work on producing pearls of character such as those from Galatians 5:22-23: peace, love, patience, self-control, etc…And so I am challenging you, my readers, as well as myself, to work on forming our own character pearls shiny and bright. Let the irritation of life be a form to lead us into the classroom of pearl building.

One last thought, at the end of chapter four, they ask two questions: “What books have you read dealing with the virtues/disciplines of a godly woman? In contrast, how many magazines have you read that deal with external glamour?”

When I really thought about it, I was surprised to realize that there are very few books, if any, that I have read which have made it their singular goal to teach and guide others on how to form godly character. On the other hand, I could easily recount a number of magazines I have flipped through dealing with outward beauty. This definitely made me realize that so often we forget to work on improving our character over improving our looks. Not to say that there is anything wrong with make-up or hair styles – Lord knows I love all of that, but I think when that becomes EVERYTHING and you are neglecting your spiritual walk and character then it becomes a problem.

~ Southern Dreamer

Note: All credit goes to Jackie Kendall and Debby Jones for the pearl analogy and the quotes.