Reflections on what is valuable and pearls and such <3

As I put a pair of Kate Spade faux pearl studs in my ears this morning, I thought as I do every time I put on pearls of any kind about a comment I once heard. I was working at Talbots and we had some pearl jewelry in the display case embedded in the check out desk. 

Two young women were paying for their purchases and one said, with an air of disdain, “Pearls. The poor man’s diamonds.”

I stifled a laugh as I finished the transaction. 

The girl and her companion were not dripping in expensive diamonds. Their attire and selected items from the sale rack indicated a less than opulent lifestyle. 

Not judging, just pointing out that someone, somewhere had made that comment and it settled into her thoughts and ideas and standards. It clouded her view of pearls, even real ones I guess.

I want to chat about that in a minute. However; first, in defense of the pearl, a few words. 

Come on. 

An oyster gets a piece of sand inside the shell and it works and slowly covers it to relieve the irritation. Out of that we get a beautiful, lustrous circle or oval whose surface is white and yet seems to reflect a myriad of colors. 

Not to mention, my family and their friends nicknamed me “Pearl” as a child. It was so accepted in conversation that at one point a lady my mom knew socially asked where Laura Jean was because all she had met was Carla and Pearl. 

Also I refuse to think I am a poor man’s answer to diamonds. 

But I digress. 

The point of this is that many of us have heard a phrase or an idea and it landed on us in such a way that we have accepted it as truth. We allow it to shape our thinking, response and reactions. 

It may be something someone has said about us, about others, about the way things should be done and we are holding to a false “truth.” It is always a good practice to examine things we think are true and hold them up to God’s truth. 

Our words spoken to others need to carry the weight of truth and not the flimsiness of someone else’s opinion we have taken up and carry now. Measure your beliefs against His standard. 

His words truly are … pearls of wisdom for us diamonds in the rough <3