Five women sit with Spanish food flared all around, our mouths chattering between spoonfuls regarding everything from toddler woes to recipes to teaching. More topics were strewn about, platforms we all stand on or walk over, engaging our minds as women in current Church issues and family values and feminine callings. Somewhere toward the end of dinner our conversation fell on Pinterest - ideas gained, inspiration given, and ideals growing. This turned our discussion into the emotions Pinterest also triggered -- envy, comparison, and greed as well as self-doubt, discouragement, and dissatisfaction with our own reality. We sat back in our chairs, now moving onto coffee and pondering the Pinterest world and its implications for us as Christian women.
What people rush to do, often out of the difficulty of living in the tension, is draw lines around topics, issues, concerns, and choices. It is easiest to live in a world painted black and white, labeled good or bad, stamped holy or evil. I'd like to assign such headlines to Pinterest, but I don't think thats the issue. In other words, I think it can be used for great good, like the buffalo chicken wreath recipe I'm cooking for my husband tonight.
Yet Biblically, I think we need to assess our interaction with Pinterest. Many passages pop into mind regarding temptation, contentment, and simplicity, yet I perhaps the truest analysis was spoken at the table that night, giving the the strongest contrast I'd heard, catching me in a way only clear comparison and truth can. As the writer of Hebrews 4:12 states: "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."
And so His Word was brought forth at the dinner table: "Consider the difference between Pinterest and Proverbs 31..." The atmosphere gained momentum and our discussion grew vehemently, each woman delving into it with conviction, asserting their wrestling with the statement spoken, and feeling the implication of identifying that contrast.
The Proverbs 31 Woman. The woman we all long to be, are sometimes overwhelmed by, and yet given model through. The passage outlines qualities and mannerisms of this woman of nobility: she "works with eager hands" (v13), provides for her family (v15), uses money wisely (v16), and works hard and purposefully (v17). "She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy" (20). "She is clothed with strength and dignity...she does not eat the bread of idleness." (v25, 27). In highest regard of all, she is a woman who is fully pursing the Lord, thus earning the respect of her husband, her family, and her village in these efforts.
With her time, she cares diligently for her family, and she serves the poor. I picture her today washing sheets, putting chicken in the crockpot, and volunteering at a local school, nursing home, or shelter. She may have a career, she may tend to her little ones, she may help her elderly parent. With her time, she is purposeful, productive.
The money she has and the money she earns is used with wisdom. She considers purchases and their intent; she saves and is generous. She contemplates the value of a craft and is discerning on the funds that it may use. She honors God and her family with her use of wealth and resources.
This is where I pause with the awareness that this forceful conviction has rumbled in me for nine months and hasn't made its way to the page because its impact has been profound and cut so straight to the heart of what I see women consuming that presenting such an issue demands wisdom. Furthermore, it requires words and contemplation that allow and guides a conscientious process.
As with many addictions, Pinterest pulls in slowly and does not harm all partakers. Some drink to it like leisurely glass of wine, tasting every few days or weeks and use an idea here or there. Others are unaware of the state of their consumption, pinning away like one more trip to the bar, until their reality is tainted or left with more emptiness, desires, and wants.
The caution is for Pinterest to be a help in your pursuit of caring for your family and tending to your work, as Proverbs 31 states. Yet compelling clicking can instead lead to consumption so great that dream worlds are built, fantasy collections are sought, and boards are bursting bigger and better than real life could possibly boast.
This danger leads directly back to the call of the Proverbs 31 woman and our challenge to look inwardly, noting her time, her talents (money), her purposed life, and her pursing God. Dear women, consider these callings. Consider the comparisons, the contrasts. Consider your consumption and its interactions with his Kingdom.
In your interaction with Pinterest, may his Truths guide your wrestling, his creativity your creations, and his conviction your clicking.
