It's Tough Being A Woman

I've recently begun a Bible study on the book of Esther entitled, "It's Tough Being A Woman." No doubt, you've heard the jokes, or half-jokes:
* Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it backwards and in high heels....
* A woman has to do twice as much twice as well for half the pay to be considered half as good as a man.
* God gave women the tough job because He knew men couldn't handle it.
* "...the predicted annual salary of a stay at home mom, if paid out, would be $138,095. Working moms are valued at $85,939, in addition to the mother's 'professional' salary." (http://www.taxgirl.com/the-value-of-a-mother/) Makes one almost want to apply for the position...almost.

It doesn't help that others (and we) have high expectations of us. In Proverbs 31:10, we are asked, "An excellent wife, who can find?" and we're told "Her worth is far above jewels." The writer lists an imposing set of characteristics of this excellent wife. Have you ever tried to live up to his standards, even in a modernized version?

When it gets tough to be a woman, it may help to remember that it is when coal is put under great pressure that it becomes a diamond. Not all coal becomes a diamond It's only the coal that has been transformed by enormous pressure that becomes diamond. It's the same for us. We can be transformed by the pressures of our lives and become an excellent woman whose worth is far above jewels, a princess of the royal court of our Lord; or those pressures can fail to transform us and we remain coal.

After all that pressure, diamonds in their natural state aren't the gems that one finds in a jewelry store. They need to be cut to remove flaws, shaped, buffed and polished. It may be tough to be a woman, but when we've been transformed (Romans 12:1-2), when the flaws have been removed and we've been shaped (conformed to the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29)) and buffed and polished, then we are fit to adorn His royal crown.