Friday Reading: Proverbs 11:22
Key Verse: Proverb 11:22
22 Like a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a beautiful woman who turns aside discretion.
Devotion:
I’m sure we have all seen pictures of a bull or pig with a ring through its nose. The placing of a ring through a pig’s nose is to try and stop the pig from rooting up so much earth. To place an iron ring there would seem fine but to place a gold ring or a ring with a precious stone mounted in it would just be wrong. The ring itself would last a few minutes before it was covered in all manner of dirt and scratched beyond belief. So when the author compares that with a woman losing her way we must stop and think about what is being done.
God created us so that we could be together, man and woman as husband and wife. He created Eve for (and from) Adam so that they could have a wonderful, pure, honest and righteous love for each other. When either the man or the woman then goes and does that which is not pure, honest and virtuous then they are letting themselves down as well as partners or prospective partners. If we wanted to give something beautiful to someone else we would not go out of our way to defile it before we gave it away... So why should we think of our bodies in any other light?
Once we lose our sense of modesty and chastity we are far from being the beautiful person that God first created. When we finally meet the person of our dreams we would want to be able to give them the best that we had and if the best that we had is no longer good enough, then we have a problem! It would take a lot of hard work to be able to clean and shine up a gold ring that had once been buried in dirt and mud; time where the receiver may well find another that is already clean and shiny! What we do now will affect us in our futures. What caution we throw to the wind now will find us out just around the corner – just when we hope that it is buried and gone... Don’t give in, wise up!
Points to Ponder:
Do you give in easily?
How often do you seek God’s advice?
