Vessel of Vanity
“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is worthy to be praised.” – Proverbs 31:30
A compliment to a person can bounce back as an inadvertent compliment to the giver, or so Mike stated in his own words last Friday night, or rather Saturday morning. Though we teased him about his “vanity” through the “vessel” of another; to his defense, he had been tired the whole night. In truth, I can’t even remember what spurred the comment, but as I sat down to write this piece as commissioned by AJ, originally planned to be satirical or humorous, I remembered a passage from Proverbs, a book of the Bible, touching on this subject.
The final chapter and words of Proverbs devote their finale to “The Wife of Noble Character.” The section begins by commenting on the rarity and value of a wife of noble character. King Lemuel, the author of the section, likens her value to a sum greater than rubies. The progression of description weaves its way through her accomplishments which include charity, security, excellent workmanship, and wisdom. Not only is her family well provided for, but it is well respected throughout the city. Verse 23 says right in the middle of the list, “Her husband is respected at the city gate.” A complimented woman can most definitely be the compliment of a man.
Beauty also exists in the inverse; a complimented man can also be the compliment of a woman. This area of discussion expands through the ages, across cultures, and between religions, too much for one blog. So much stems from a simple joke late one night; one display of the exquisiteness of discourse.
A compliment to a person can bounce back as an inadvertent compliment to the giver, or so Mike stated in his own words last Friday night, or rather Saturday morning. Though we teased him about his “vanity” through the “vessel” of another; to his defense, he had been tired the whole night. In truth, I can’t even remember what spurred the comment, but as I sat down to write this piece as commissioned by AJ, originally planned to be satirical or humorous, I remembered a passage from Proverbs, a book of the Bible, touching on this subject.
The final chapter and words of Proverbs devote their finale to “The Wife of Noble Character.” The section begins by commenting on the rarity and value of a wife of noble character. King Lemuel, the author of the section, likens her value to a sum greater than rubies. The progression of description weaves its way through her accomplishments which include charity, security, excellent workmanship, and wisdom. Not only is her family well provided for, but it is well respected throughout the city. Verse 23 says right in the middle of the list, “Her husband is respected at the city gate.” A complimented woman can most definitely be the compliment of a man.
Beauty also exists in the inverse; a complimented man can also be the compliment of a woman. This area of discussion expands through the ages, across cultures, and between religions, too much for one blog. So much stems from a simple joke late one night; one display of the exquisiteness of discourse.
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posted by bellevoce | 5:51 PM
8 Comments:
In other words, beauty is all, and all is beauty. It all depends on whose eyes we use to view the life around us. It all depends on the level of dependency the person in contact sees life around us. Thats the beauty of life. Everything is beautiful to somebody.
In the most simplest terms, one man's trash is another man's treasure.
Hmm, I would disagree with reiphil, i dont think one mans trash is another mans treasure has anything to do with this. I beleive that what the subject here is, is that you look at somthing and you only see with your eyes, but your not really looking with your heart. Also i think that we see things a whole lot differently then god does and we see them so simple yet we think them so magnificent, but in God's eyes it is so much more and can be so much more.
And for the record i would like to state that you have wonderful grammer.=)
Elisabeth,
Great subject for dicussion.
I would say that both the wife of noble character and her husband who receives praise at the city gates should certainly be ideals rather than stadards by which we judge ourselves and others.
As for people there is no woman in the world who can accomplish all that stuff all of the time, which is ok! And as for the woman wanting a husband who is complimented, I feel like this is an important thing, but it shouldn't be exagerated. Because there are many girls that have this unrealistic view of the men in their lives - they want a man who is THE hero, or THE leader.
So being a man of good character who is complimented in public shouldn't be confused with a man who is famous and lusted after because of his position rather than his personality.
I feel like if guys lust after physical beauty, then women lust after the position the man holds. There is something about how women like men who are in positions of power. And I would say that it is more important to fall in love with a man of good character rather than a man of high popularity as popularity can be superficial.
From personal experience its frustrating because as soon as I take position of leadership I feel like I see a bunch of girls looking at me with the googly eyes, which is rediculous because they don't really know me.
Back to blogging again - warm regards,
-Mike Morabito
You are a very insightful girl!
mike morabito said this:
I feel like if guys lust after physical beauty, then women lust after the position the man holds.
Bravo. This scenario has been played out for centuries--from the days of Sampson and Delilah, to Woody Allen and his child bride.
Her a man from India leaves a compliment
I found your blog extremely interesting.
all the best
Exquisite is just the word for such discourse. You, lady who I have not met, have opened quite a nice discourse indeed.
It seems inherent in us to want to be the complimented woman or the complimented man by association to someone's greatness. What we acknowledge as we allow ourselves to accept such compliments is our connectedness to the complimented. Something in them, some part of us, allows us to be proud of them, to take their excellence and dust ourselves in its sparkliness.
This connectedness can be a beautiful opportunity to accept our oneness, our inability to avoid being ever-affected by the other beings on this planet. Especially in the relationship between good friends or a husband and wife, we would like to celebrate the excellence that is a product of collaboration, the level of which could not be reached on one's own.
The man at the city's gate does not accept his wife's compliment because he owns her, or because he made her what she is, or because he's just an assuming jerk. He is able to accept his wife's compliment because he is her teammate, he is her companion, he is part of the substance with which she serves the Lord and others in virtue.
He could not seek her, because he is a part of her. Their compliments are one, because they are one-- and essentially their compliments are God's only, who is the substance of good in any good we 'produce'.
To connect this to some of Mike's points, I would say: men, seek not the wife of noble character, women seek not the husband of greatness. People, live seeking God only, and as you find yourselves seeking alongside brothers and sisters in community, you will see something else that you have not been seeking. You may receive a gift to help you on your way, and as you press on, you may look over and see that a wife of noble character has grown beside you, or that a man of warrior’s heart has become the man beside you.
And for this we will rejoice only in the Lord, and take no vanity, not seeing ourselves, because we will still be fixated on Him as a goal.
Sorry this is so long, but thank you for the opportunity for discourse.
In the first place, i think beauty is subjective, or, "in the eye of the beholder", as they say...I think this applies not only to physical beauty (obviously), but inward beauty as well...and as far as physical beauty/attraction goes, it doesn't always have to go hand in hand with lust, I think we can be physically attracted to someone without lusting after them, and when this occurs, is when we are able to appreciate outward beauty, as well as see through it to what lies beneath, because i think lust covers up most of what we don't want to see about the person, because we are looking and wanting JUST what we see, not what we need to see about the person, and not until we can actually see what's underneath, that's when we can go so much deeper into who that person actually is and appreciate that, and take the relationship to a level that could have never been reached by just "lust", but we can still appreciate the outward beauty, and, as far as that goes, outward beauty and attraction gets so much stronger when you take the time to figure out what's underneath it.
sorry, don't know if that was off subject at all, but it's a little bit of an overall response to some of the other comments...good convo starter tho!
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