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Few of us have made it our ambition in life to be a Bad Girl. Even Jezebel and Delilah, those hussies from the pages of the Old Testament, probably didn't set their sights on being evil when they were sweet young things.
I grew up in a Good Girl home. Maybe you did, too. Nice town, nice parents, all the right friends, all the right activities. But when I hit my mid-teens, suddenly that charming small town became stifling. Those National Honor Society pals were nerds. Being good was a snooze. I threw caution—and everything else—to the wind, and pursued a party lifestyle with gusto for a full decade.
In my search for joy, I settled for fun, the kind that came in a bottle, a pill, or the arms of a stranger. Such fun is temporary at best; it's risky, even dangerous, at worst. Not to mention breaking the heart of the One who made us in his image.
Oh, when I think of the shallow relationships, the misspent dollars, the wasted years! I was a woman without hope—a Bad Girl by choice—convinced that if I could just find the "right man," he would save me from my sorrows.
One wintry day in 1982, I met that "right man"—Jesus—who willingly gave up his life to set me free from my own foolishness. Me! Sinful, disobedient, rebellious Liz. My Christian friends who'd shared their hearts, their hugs, and their lives with me now shared the truth with me: I was a sinner in need of a Savior.
Finally, I understood the depth of my badness and the breadth of God's goodness, and embraced his gift of grace with both hands. I was a Bad Girl for a season, but—thank God!—not forever.
My life as an FBG—Former Bad Girl—is one reason I've always been intrigued by those "other" women in the Bible. Rather than the Good Girls—Esther, Ruth, Mary, Lydia—it was those Bad Girls I understood best.
Many of them had notorious reputations but no name: Lot's wife. The woman caught in adultery. Potiphar's wife.
That last story—of an Egyptian temptress married to the head of Pharoah's bodyguards—is one tawdry tale. We want our kids to read the Bible, but think twice about starting with Genesis 39 and the story of a wife who decided she could ignore her marriage vows and graze in greener pastures.
Joseph, her husband's Hebrew slave, was indeed "well-built and handsome"—a stud muffin of a guy—but he wisely resisted her provocative invitations, one after another.
Ten points for Joe. Zero for Mrs. P.
What can you learn from a woman like her? How not to get yourself in such a situation. We can't assume that because we're happily married our head won't be turned by the appeal of a muscle-bound delivery guy or a cute carpenter working on our new deck. It happens to Christian women every day—with tragic results.
Those of us who aspire to be Good Girls need to remember these words: "Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:15-16).
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