Vanity, Vanity, All Is Vanity

The Slow Corruption of Woman Kind

For all of history, and all around the world, women raised children; men did the difficult work and the fighting.

Now, that is all topsy-turvy, and women are doing all the work that used to be done by men.

In a way, this is as if we decided that all dogs should be cats, and we tried to teach them to be cats. You can, to a degree, teach a dog to act like a cat, or a cat to act like a dog…but they don’t do it very well.

(And, really, why? If you want a cat, just get a cat.)

We have convinced an entire generation of women that they should abandon everything important women have done in all previous generations.

How?

By appealing to their vanity.

“You can do anything.”

“You can be so much more.”

“Don’t allow yourself to be limited to marriage and a family. Make something of yourself!”

“You want to make your mark on history, right?”

What do each of these statements have in common?

They are all designed to make the listener think that they—their personal desires and wants—are the most important thing in their experience.

Not their family, not duty, not service…them.

They are appeals to vanity— What can you do? How can the future be about you? You. You. You. It’s all about you.

Women are sucked in by this every day, and we don’t even realize that we are being derailed. We don’t realize it is about vanity because the phrases sound so normal.

Why?

Because they are the phrases people have always said…to men.

If a woman is in her whom, providing a nurturing atmosphere for her husband and children, someone needs to pay the bills, to provide shelter, bring home food.

Men needed to provide for their families, so they had to find their way in the world, make a niche for themselves.

Women were content to not be in the limelight in order to do the really difficult and important work of raising the next generation.

Because that was their duty That was where they were needed.

Until those attempting to change society started appealing to their vanity.

People used to say it was envy…that women wanted to move into the world of men because they envied what men had.

Maybe this was true at one time, with some earlier generation. I don’t know. But by the time I came along, it was presented to my generation as “Don’t you want to be in the history books? Don’t you want to make your mark on the world?”

How many women, working today, are doing work that will put them into the history books? How many are working jobs that are even satisfying and worthwhile? How many, when they look back at the end of their life, will be satisfied with the path that they took?

A few, sure. There are women out there doing worthwhile or even amazing work, but the rest of them? The majority?

And if, at the end of their lives, they are disappointed, will they even understand why?

…that the Powers of Darkness appealed to their vanity and convinced them to throw aside a life of duty and service for one where self-centeredness was lauded?

I think most of us have no idea how horribly we have been misled.

We have been misled to think it is all about us.

My mother told me many times, that when she was young, marriage was about service. You went into a marriage thinking about how you could serve and help the other partner.

Somewhere along the line, she said marriage became about happiness. But you can’t get your happiness from another person. She felt this was why so many marriages ended in divorce…because the partners entered it looking for something selfish rather than to help and support each other.

What if human life is not supposed to be about “You can do anything you want?”

What if we are supposed to put aside our desires and do what God wants us to do?

What if we are supposed to serve our families with a loving heart, rather than glorify ourselves?

² Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

³ What profit hath a (wo)man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?

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