Women Day Special: How Are You Influencing Others?
Posted: Friday, March 06, 2009
by Swapna Nanda
March 8th is considered as the International Day for Women. Many programs will be held, honoring and rewarding women for their special achievements, contribution to the society at large. It is indeed a very wonderful thing to be recognized and acknowledged for ones work and contribution.
Yet there are millions of women who labor quietly and live a life of sacrifice and commitment whose names are never announced publicly or applauded for. Yet they leave behind their influence in the lives who exist around them. I salute all those mothers, sisters, wives, grandmas, mother-in-laws, who have and are play their roles so silently yet effectively in building up others. I want to acknowledge my mother and mom-in-law for their contribution in my life and my husbands life. We are now what we are because of their sacrifice, love and care for us.
Just the way there are two sides of a coin, similarly there are two aspects of influence too- Bad influence and Good influence. You and I could be influencing others in a positive way or negative way.
Lets look at some examples from the Bible. Lets look at the bad ones first. (I do not want to end with a bad note).
1. Queen Jezebel: There was a King at certain period of history named Ahab. He was the ruler of the Kingdom of Israel. Unfortunately he was not a very wise and good king. Adding to his evil nature was his queen Jezebel. She was a foreigner and so did not fear the God of Israel; therefore needless to say, she led Ahab more astray into sin, idolatry, unethical behavior and murder. She was such a strong influence on her husband that she led to the ruin not only of her husband but also of the whole kingdom. (1 Kings 16-22).
2. Solomons wives: King Solomon of history is known as he wisest king of all times. He was known for fine discernment and able leadership for a while. He feared the Lord like his father. He built the majestic Temple according to Gods plane. He is also known for his literary abilities. His Proverbs still is the manual for a successful daily living. But Alas! The great man had a very bad ending. 1Kings 11: 4-6. As Solomon grew older, his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God. Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; He did not follow the Lord completely. What a sad climax of a life that was once so fruitful.
Here, I want to stress that the downfall of the Kings cannot be entirely blamed on the women in their lives. They made their own wrong choices which led to disaster but the people in their lives played a role too.
Now lets look at a few wonderful positive influences. No, they are no beauty queens or super heroines. They did not hold any great posts or have no list of achievements trailing behind them. In fact they were mere women whose names are seldom pronounced by people.
1. Naomi: My character is from the true story of Ruth from the history of ancient Israel. Naomi was a Jewish lady who went with her husband and two sons to the land of Moab during famine. Migrating from one place to another is always stressful and they migrated from one country to another. She had to adjust with new people, new surroundings, and perhaps new style of food too. In the midst of all the transitions perhaps when they were settling down with new daughter-in-laws and certainly looking forward to new additions to the family suddenly disaster struck her life. She not only became a widow, but lost her two young sons. It must be heartrending to see two young girls becoming widows too. Naturally, she was sad and lonely and decide to return back to her own hometown. Now the striking part lies here is that one of her daughter-in-law Ruth did not return back but was determined to go along with Naomi. I always wonder what made her to take that decision do firmly. We see such deep emotions and strong bond between the Mom-in-law and daughter-in-law here. Ruth 1:16-18. And whats more, Ruth makes one of the best testimony about the true living God. She acknowledged God too as the only God to be worshiped.
What made Ruth so strong and inclined towards Naomi and her God? We know the story that later Ruth became one the blessed woman of history and brought joy to her mother-in-law too. Think about it. Was Naomis life an influence for her to take the bold step?
2. The unnamed servant girl: Her name is not mentioned but certainly her life and behavior was qualitative and strong even though she was a prisoner in another country. Working as a maid in the Commanders house had not dwindled her love for God nor affecter her personality. Nothing much is mentioned about her but it seems when she informed about Gods prophet Elishas ability to heal her masters leprosy, they listened to her and acted upon it. To make the story short, Naaman the commander of Aram went ahead in search of prophet Elisha adnd eventually was healed of his skin disease. The striking part here is what Naaman confesses after his healing. 2 Kings 5: 15. He admitted about the Truth about the true God. Wow! What a wonder.
Even not much is spoken about this young girl or Naomi, I give them full credit for beings agents of change and transformation in peoples lives around them. In their own sweet manner they let the fragrance of God touch others through their lives.
I pray that may these stories be an encouragement to at least one person to rise up and live life meaningfully because unawares our lives are like open letters.
This Article has been viewed 248 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Hi Swapna, This is a great article. You truly have a gift to take these biblical stories and tell them with such ease and you do it so that all can relate to the lesson in them. Whether Christian or not. Excellent job. I am so glad you are here at SW with us. Blessings! TeresaOh Thank you Teresa. I feel so happy that you think that way about the stories. You are a good encourager. I am new in SW and still learning to write well. But thank you so much for reading my article and your comments. Love Swapna
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.