Donna Lee Schillinger and On My Own Now: How Young Women Can Use Proverbs as a Guide

I am excited about today's guest blogger because I am over halfway through her book, On My Own Now: Straight Talk from the Proverbs for Young Christian Women who Want to Remain Pure, Debt-free and Regret-free, and realizing how helpful this book will be to young women.

Proverbs is one of my favorite books of the Bible; and it does not surprise me that an author has captured the wisdom of King Solomon in a book that relates to modern-day themes. But Donna's unique approach is what makes this book so special.

I asked Donna to provide three proverbs that young women could use to help guide them through life. Here is what she had to say:

Before I jump into a few proverbs that can be beneficial for guiding young women, I have to explain that my process in On My Own Now: Straight Talk from the Proverbs for Young Christian Women who Want to Remain Pure, Debt-free and Regret-free was to take verses from the proverbs and reverse the gender in them. I made “he” into “she,” “him” into “her,” and so on. Just this simple change opened up a lot of verses to modern applications to young women that I had never considered before. These verses help to illustrate this point:

Proverbs 26:27 “If a woman digs a pit, she will fall into it; if a woman rolls a stone, it will roll back on her.”

A lot of the mistakes we make as women have in their basis ignoring simple facts of physics – if I roll this stone up the hill and stand in its place, it will roll back on me. Duh, right? And yet, how readily would a young bride of 18 who has known her fiancé for three months agree that she is setting herself up to be rolled over by entering into a major decision too quickly, with someone she doesn’t know well enough, at an age to which our society is hostile against marriage? Just try to convince this woman in love that she’s making a mistake. We need to stay engaged with rational thinking and understand that we are not immune to probable outcomes and natural consequences, just because we have high hopes.

Proverbs 29:11 “A fool gives vent to her anger, but a wise woman keeps herself under control.”

Probably since the advent of soap operas, we’ve been wearing away at the distinction between what works in the movies and what works in real life. Now with reality TV and dramatic talk shows (of the Jerry Springer ilk), those lines are becoming even more blurred. We see high drama on television and in the movies all the time, but in real life, big acting does not win awards. One of the quickest ways to find this out is to throw a fit on the job. So I lost my temper, so what? People should get over it in one episode, like they do on TV, right? Nope. In real life, we can expect a counseling statement from our supervisor or maybe even a police escort off the property. Even when we have just cause to be angry, if we abandon rational behavior to prove our point, no one will defend us.

Proverbs 19:27 “Stop listening to instruction, my daughter, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.”

If I could get just one truth across in On My Own Now, this would be it. When we cease to have a regularly scheduled quiet time with our Heavenly Father, we will stray. It’s what happened to me. When I was a teenager, I used to read Proverbs religiously (no pun intended). Then I stopped. Life got in the way. College totally disrupted my former routine and instead of reading Proverbs before I fell asleep, I was studying biology, partying or late-night chatting with friends. There was a residual effect of all that wisdom I had soaked up in my teen years, but when it finally wore off, do you know what was left? A fool. Turns out the only thing keeping me out of trouble was that daily connection to the Wisdom of the ages. Though being a fool seemed like fun at the time, I don’t have much to brag about now. I would be embarrassed to admit to many of my antics and I wouldn’t want my daughter to know about them, for sure! I may have turned from those memories, but they have not disappeared. I left a trail of witnesses so thick I could never run for public office!

Be deliberate about your relationship with God. Make a commitment to stay in contact at least once a day. Begin to think about chatting with God as being as essential as changing your underwear each day!

Visit Donna online at www.onmyownnow.com. While you're there, don't forget to sign up for the free Single! Young Christian Woman e-zine.

You can order an autographed copy of the book right now for 25% off at Quilldriver Books.