For All She's WorthSample

Rip Off the Price Tag and See What’s Under There

I believe that every person is born with two price tags. One, placed by its Creator, is indelible as if tattooed on its soul. It says, “priceless,” “immeasurable,” “precious.” This price tag cannot be removed or altered. It is permanent.

The other tag can fluctuate wildly—especially in women. Most of the time, this variable can be traced to societal voices that whisper, sometimes scream, that her value is based on things that are often out of her control. Though I cannot speak to all the messages that a woman receives, I can explore the ones that shaped me in my own sense of worldly value and I’m still trying to embrace that first ineffaceable one granted to me by God.

I grew up in the 1950s and 60s in the Deep South. Certain messages and labels were thrust at me because of the time and place in which I grew up. It was the Leave It to Beaver era when roles for men and women were set. Although times were changing, I was still very much marked by the voices of my environment.

One of the early recordings in my brain was a message on the 1960s popular TV sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show.In one episode entitled “Ellie Saves a Female,” the storyline follows a farmer’s daughter, an only child, who is denied the use of makeup, hairstyling, and perfume— “pleasures of being a woman.” Against the protests of the lady druggist, Ellie Walker, the farmer, who is a widower, refuses to let his daughter Frankie (real name Frances) dress and present herself as a woman because he needs her to be his farm hand. However, Andy, the local sheriff intervenes and convinces the farmer that his daughter, who is just an average worker because of her gender, would be more valuable to play the role of beautiful girl so that she can attract a strong young man who would ultimately benefit the farm. Andy calls Frankie a “fair farmhand,” which is compared to a phrase he coins upon her as “quite a girl,” and he convinces the farmer that he isn’t using his daughter correctly. Though today these words would be an outrage, the theme may still be hidden somewhere in my mind. I am still letting my worth be driven by such skewed philosophy.

I am aware that my readers may have been reared in very different circumstances than I, but I still believe that certain questions of self-worth in women (and men, too) are somewhat universal. The labels from the world will try to define us, but realize there’s a permanent label that we must discover.

2 Corinthians 10: 3-6 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage battle according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.” (NASB)