Pearls In The Pigpen

Pearls in the Pigpen

Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.

My daughter has a gift for storytelling, and she has been working hard on a fictional tale of a girl named Ashley. One day she asked my husband to print a draft of her story so she could take it to school with her the next day.

The next morning I found the manuscript forgotten on the hall table in my daughter’s haste to get to school. A handwritten note was written across the top: “I hope you like it.” I went about my own busy day with those words bouncing around in the back of my head until I finally paused to consider why that note was bothering me.

When she got home from school that afternoon, I casually asked why she had written those particular words across the top of her story. Her answer was as I suspected; she’d intended to show it to a group of girls who had been giving her a hard time that school year. I gently asked what response my daughter had been hoping for from her classmates, and we walked through a variety of reasons why their response to her story might not be positive. We talked about why we should be discerning in our vulnerability—choosing carefully the women we seek advice or input from, understanding that not everyone has our best interests at heart.

As my daughter and I were talking, I could feel the Holy Spirit reminding me that this conversation was as much for me as it was for Lizzie. How often do we offer up our budding talent for the approval of people who do not have our best interests at heart? How often do we throw our pearls before the proverbial swine, hoping that they will finally affirm us instead of tearing us down? Let us be wise in our vulnerability, seeking guidance from those who love us, even imperfectly. And let us be safe women who hold another’s vulnerability as the precious gift it is.

— Julie

— Today’s Act of Friendship —

Have you been casting your pearls before swine? Are you guilty of being one of the pigs in the pigpen? Ask the Holy Spirit to show you if you have either habit and what steps you might take to break it.