Description
God’s Ideal Woman
by
Clifford Lewis
2014
CHAPTER ONE DON’T BE A SILLY GIRL! 6
CHAPTER TWO ADVICE TO THE OLD MAID.. 15
CHAPTER THREE A GOD-GUIDED LOVE AFFAIR. 25
CHAPTER FOUR HOME. WHAT MAKES IT AND WHAT BREAKS IT 36
CHAPTER FIVE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MOTHERHOOD.. 50
CHAPTER SIX GOD’S IDEAL WOMAN. 65
INTRODUCTION
“IF I HAD HEARD that message twenty years ago, I am sure that I would not have made the awful mistake that I made, and my broken heart and home could have been prevented,” said a sad-faced woman as she met me in the aisle of a church after a service for women and girls only.
Another mother said, “Those words of warning should be in print. I am so thankful that my daughters heard you this afternoon. Every woman and girl in America and other lands needs the message that you have just given.”
After hearing such encouraging remarks for several years in all sections of America, Canada and abroad, I felt definitely led to write out the messages from only a few notes. I am happy that the testimony of this book will reach into many places where I can never go personally.
Let me express my appreciation to those who are indicating their desire to help spread these messages throughout the country. Orders are constantly coming in even before the book is printed. Some are ordering several copies to use as gifts for various occasions. How I wish that there was some way to get a copy of this book into every home in America, and that a large number could be sent to other countries. Will you pass your book around so that your relatives, friends and neighbors may read it?
Every word of every sentence has been bathed in earnest prayer. Every copy will be sent forth with a prayer behind it. We are praying that as a result of reading its pages, the unsaved may be pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ; the defeated, backslidden Christians may return to fellowship and constant victory; and that the saints of God may be fired with a new zeal to be soul-winners.
We are also praying that the frivolous may heed the words of warning, the discouraged may be comforted, the lonely ones may be cheered, and that thousands of homes will be made happier and more harmonious because of the establishment, or re-establishment, of family altars. By faith we are claiming victory for many hearts and homes, and we are thanking our Father in advance for what He is going to do.
Mrs. Lewis and I are constantly traveling up and down the land trying to get the gospel to as many people as possible. We need, and will be deeply grateful for, your daily prayers. If there is any service that we can render you at any time, please feel free to write us. We are always glad to receive the prayer requests and testimonies of those who read our books.
Clifford Lewis
Kansas City Bible College
FOREWORD
ENCOURAGEMENT and the knowledge of the true way out for our youth is needed as never before in our blessed land. I thank God and take courage that scores and even hundreds, such as Clifford Lewis represents, are espousing the cause of Christianity and are determined to try and win our young folks. Knowing it to be the only really worthwhile program for the world today, I am glad they are concentrating on and appealing to the youth of our nation. More power to you, Clifford!
We need words of warning and sign posts to find our way out of the dense fog that surrounds us, and I pray and trust that this book, GOD’S IDEAL WOMAN, will be read, and that the light will break in on the lives and hearts of tens of thousands who will find our Lord as their Savior. Then they will go out and testify and become witnesses to the saving and keeping power of Jesus, our Lord.
Mrs. W. A. (Billy) Sunday
CHAPTER ONE DON’T BE A SILLY GIRL!
A SILLY GIRL can be frivolous, selfish, thoughtless, ungrateful, proud, intemperate, impure, unkind, disrespectful, stubborn, tactless, willful, disobedient, untrustworthy, without worthy ambitions, careless about her friends, and devoid of high standards. Some of these characteristics are discussed in other chapters in this book, but let us notice the last three mentioned above.
WITHOUT WORTHY AMBITIONS
“What are you living for?” someone asked a young girl. “For the kick I can get out of life,” she quickly replied. Only a silly girl would make such a statement, and yet, we should be very sympathetic with such young people.
The majority of girls are so afraid that someone will think of them as “wall flowers,” “flat tires,” old fogies,” and “tied to mama’s apron strings,” that they make the silly mistake of adopting the selfish, stubborn philosophy expressed in such terms as “be a good sport”; “follow the gang”; “hit the pace”; “keep up with the age”; “roll ‘em high”; “the sky is the limit”; and “not young but once, so have a big time.”
Girls, remember this! It is the devil’s lie that you must sow your wild oats and go over “Fool’s Hill.” Many are wrecked before they get over the hill, and don’t forget the sad fact that if you sow wild oats, you must sooner or later reap a wild harvest.
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7, 8).
“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7).
“Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same” (Job 4:8).
Every girl should be ambitious to start sowing good seed early in life. She should be ambitious to live pure, unselfish, humble, temperate, and obedient. Worthy ambition prompts her to be thoughtful, kind, trustworthy, tactful, respectful, and grateful.
The only way to possess worthy ambitions is to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and love Him with all your heart. As a Christian your greatest desire and ambition is to do His precious will and to win lost souls from darkness to light.
CARELESS ABOUT HER FRIENDS
You cannot be too careful about your boyfriends and girlfriends. They will help to make you or break you. We are prone to become like those with whom we associate. Here is a statement worth remembering: When you leave out one letter, the word “friend” is changed to “fiend.” That “r” should stand for reality.
It is possible to let your heart run away with your head. It is easy to make a mistake in the choice of friends. Be sure that they are real. Are you better or worse after being with them? Someone has said that a real friend is one who sees the best that is in you, appeals to that best, and will help you to work out the best for your life. We know that a true friend will also see our mistakes and will help us to overcome them.
I warn you to be careful about getting a “crush” on anyone. A “crush” oftentimes has a detrimental reaction on the mind and body of a person. It is dangerous to get a “crush” on a member of either sex. Friendship should be thought of as a very sacred thing. If it is real, it will be built on a firm foundation and not a “crushy” one.
Don’t get “chummy” with the wrong people. You do not realize the evil you permit to enter your life when you keep company with folk who are impure in thought, word, or deed. The tragic story of many who have fallen is: “I started going with the wrong person or crowd.” You should sever relationships at once with anyone who is dragging you down. Why should you throw yourself away to one who is unworthy?
The friendship of Jonathan, the prince, and David, the shepherd boy, is expressed in the verse, “The Lord be between me and thee” (I Samuel 20:42). If Christ is between you and your friend, you are always drawn closer to each other as you are drawn closer to Him. Friends should love each other for Christ’s sake.
DEVOID OF HIGH STANDARDS
The silly girl has no high standards for life. Many girls are deceived by thinking that in order to be popular with the opposite sex she must be vulgar in her speech, daring in her dress, and loose in her ways. She believes that if she rides the waves of modern society, she must go in for garish cosmetics, cigarettes, cocktails, and wild parties. You may attract a “beast” or “human hawk” by those methods, but you will never attract a decent man.
Girls should be very careful about habits. Doctors estimate that sixty per cent of the babies born to smoking mothers die before they are two years old. The average girl has no idea of the physical effect of smoking and drinking.
These habits soon wreck your will power and your nerves. The thing that started as a so-called pleasure ends in slavery. I have heard them desperately say, “Oh, if I could only quit these things!”
Thousands of girls start the downward path every year through the modern dance. Someone described the dance as a “hugging match set to music.” You never heard of a dance for “men only” or “women only,” did you? The quickest way to kill the dance is to take sex out of it. The devil uses the immodest bodily contact of the dance to excite wicked passions which wreck multitudes of youth. Unholy desires result from dancing; so the only safe thing to do is to abstain completely. Do you have enough backbone to say “No!”?
Many people try to justify dancing at home and school. These places feed the public dance halls. You don’t have to take dancing just because it is taught in many of our public schools. Stand alone if necessary! Don’t follow the crowd! The majority of young people only have a cotton string with ribs dangling from it for a backbone. They remind me of a jellyfish. The wind of popularity blows them this way, that way, and the other way. Are you in this class? Influence certainly should be considered in this discussion. At the close of a service a young lady came forward under deep conviction. She said, “I am worried about my influence. I taught my boyfriend to dance after his mother begged me not to do it. Since then I have become a Christian and have stopped dancing, but I can’t get him to stop. His dancing leads him to do other sinful things. He is breaking his mother’s heart, and I feel that I am responsible for it all.”
Millions of our youth are taught evil by the suggestive things they see in the movies. The picture shows are being used to poison the minds of children and to fill the jails with youthful criminals. I understand that the following blasphemous statement appeared some time ago in a movie magazine: “Vice pays on the screen; virtue will not make expenses.” The majority of the outstanding actors and actresses have been divorced more than once.
During the last few years a great many people, young and old, have felt convicted and have stopped attending the movies. They feel that they cannot waste their money or influence on an institution that is doing so much harm. The following poem has a real challenge:
When you think, or speak, or read, or write,
When you sing, or walk, or seek for delight,
To be kept from all wrong when at home or abroad.
Live always as under the eyes of the Lord.
Whatever you think, never think what you feel
You would blush, in the presence of God to reveal;
Whatever you speak in a whisper or clear,
Say nothing you would not like Jesus to hear.
Whatever you read, though the page may allure,
Read nothing unless you are perfectly sure
Consternation would not be seen in your look,
If God should say solemnly, “Show Me that book!”
Whatever you write, though in haste or in heed,
Write nothing you would not like Jesus to read;
Whatever you sing, in the midst of your glees,
Sing nothing His listening ear would displease.
Wherever you go, never go where you’d fear
God’s question being asked, “What doest thou here?”
Turn away from pleasures you’d shrink from pursuing,
If God should look down and say, “What are you doing?”
If you desire to know what is right and wrong, I suggest that you go to the Bible for your standards. People may give you wrong advice about certain things, but God’s Word is always right. The first thing to be sure about is that you are saved. Then be sure that you are living a surrendered life. Are these two facts glorious realities in your life? If so, you will not be bothered with that common question, “What is the harm?” Can you pray about everything that you do and ask God’s blessing upon it? Are you willing to be honest so you can see the truth as revealed in the Bible? Please study prayerfully the following verses:
“And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Colossians 3:17).
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31).
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
“It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak” (Romans 14:21).
“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:13, 14).
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1,2).
“And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell” (Matthew 5:29, 30).
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13,14).
“Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (II Timothy 2:19).
“Abstain from all appearance of evil” (I Thessalonians 5:22).
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (I John 2:15).
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17).
“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (II Corinthians 6:17).
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless 1 live; yet not 1, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1, 2).
“If ye then he risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-3).
MY HEART’S DESIRE
Cleanse my heart and fill me with Thy Spirit,
Satisfy the longings of my soul,
I crown Thee king and bid Thee hold the Sceptre
Yielding all, I’m now ‘neath Thy control.
Have Thy way, for Thee alone I’ll follow;
Too long I’ve followed self, rejecting Thee;
Now I lay my ALL upon the altar,
Sanctify the gift and dwell with me.
All my plans and all of my ambitions
All my dreams and all my earthly store,
Friends with all their ties that closely bind me
I ask Thee Lord to hold forever more.
Crucify the self that ruled within me.
I’ll take the cross and gladly follow Thee,
Stamp Thy likeness on my heart forever
Until Thy blessed image all shall see.
Stir my heart with love’s intensest ardor,
Teach me how to give, to serve, to pray,
Make my heart and life an unchoked channel
Of blessing to my fellow men each day.
Keep me humble, lowly, and submissive,
Sweet in spirit, kind in thought and deed,
Until all who look see Jesus only
And precious souls to Thee, I then may lead!
— Helen G. Riggs
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