What does purity look like in a woman's life? We have discussed modesty and purity. Every phase of life has its challenges in moral excellence. I think it would be interesting to have a panel discussion with women in every phase to hear their individual challenges and their suggestions for overcoming the challenges.
Today your assignment is to think about what the challenges would be for someone like Ruth in her day, and then again someone like Ruth in our day. What does a virtuous single business woman look like in today's world? And, as always, give me a Scripture or two that you find helpful in working toward adding virtue to your faith.
1 comment:
I think one of the biggest challenges for a young woman in Ruth's day would have been the lack of power. A woman in those times was so vulnerable, she might not feel like her purity was always in her own hands. (As an example, I often think about Bathsheba with this issue -- the Bible does not tell us how complicit she was in the affair with King David, but I always wonder if she felt like she couldn't refuse the king? Maybe she thought she would die? But she did suffer the consequences when their child was taken.)
Today, ironically, the issue is the same -- but for different reasons. Society tells us women have all kind of freedom today, but with those "freedoms" come expectations. Now if a woman, for example, chooses to be pure (staying a virgin until marriage, for example) society says she's a bit of a freak (inhibited, stunted, prudish, goody-goody, etc.) So, again, even though it looks like she has power, society has said she can only acceptably exercise that power in a certain way.
What this makes me think is that one of the biggest danger to my purity and sense of virtue is how much importance I place on outside influences. How will I resist them or in what ways will I cave into pressure?
In the second chapter of Job, Job's wife tried to pressure him into giving up his integrity, but he would not.
"Far be it from me to say that you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me." Job 27:5
I think holding onto virtue takes quite a bit of courage and maybe a little bit of stubbornness too!
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